Ray Anthony

Genres:	Big Band & Swing • Drama • Easy Listening • Jazz • Musicals & The Arts • Pop / Rock
Descriptive "tags":	jazz • swing • instrumental • easy listening • big band • ray anthony • 50s • orchestra
Decades Active:	1950s • 1960s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s

Biography

Raymond Antonini, 20 January 1922, Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, USA. After playing in local bands in Cleveland, Anthony spent brief spells in the trumpet sections of the Al Donahue, Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey orchestras. Following a four-year period in the US Navy, where he led a services orchestra, Anthony formed his own band in 1946 and signed with Capitol Records. The band became one of the top attractions of the 50s, touring colleges and universities, producing hit singles such as ‘At Last’, ‘Harbour Lights’, the television themes from Dragnet and Peter Gunn, plus novelty dance numbers such as ‘The Bunny Hop’ and ‘I Can’t Tell A Waltz From A Tango’. From the start, the band had always had a Millerish reed sound, so when the Miller ‘revival’ happened they participated more successfully than most. Anthony appeared with his band in two movies, Fred Astaire’s Daddy Long Legs and This Could Be The Night....

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