BP#3 HARLEM NOCTURNE SONG HISTORY (Maria Vera)

                                                           HARLEM SONG HISTORY
                                                                         1939-1980
                                                              

HARLEM NOCTURNE IS A SAXOPHONE-SATURATED SONG BORN IN 1939
a song that found pop fame for 20years.
In 1960 in a rendition by group called the VISCOUNTS,in 1980
used for the tv series Mike Hammer and related Hollywood film; they called "Harlem Nocturne",
this stay for a decades in many covers versions. But the original "Harlem Nocturne" has it's
roots in late 1930s jazz and the big band era. Who compose the "Harlem Nocturne" was
Noble Hagen that songs it's came in jazz standard.
This song was used for a lot decades for to many Orchestra in 1941,1945,1950,1960 to 1980s,
but it was the Viscounts a New Jersey band that put the song on the musical map in a new way
in the l;ate 1950s early 1960s.

The Viscounts version was first released on the Madison record label-a New York City

label started  in 1958s, by January 1959,"Harlem Nocturne" was climbing the pop 

Charts and had risen to No 52.

But in January 1966 the song rose to No 39, cracking the top 40 for a brief one week stay.

In 1953 Hagen writing the music for the Danny Thomas show "Make Room for Daddy", 

he met TV producer Sheldon Leonard.

a Leonard liked the idea and his stared created a lot shows : The Andy Griffith 

Show (1960-68), The Dick Van Dyke Show(1961-66), I Spy (1965-68), and

The Mod Squad(1968-1973).   But in the 1980s, Hagen returned to his 1930s tune, 

“Harlem Nocturne”.

 Hagen would later write books on music arranging and scoring, including, Scoring for Films: A Complete Text.  His autobiography, Memoirs of a Famous Composer Nobody Ever Heard Of, was published in 2000.  Hagen died of natural causes in May 2008.  He was 89. 

                          

One of the few photographs of The Viscounts,

on a 1960s compilation album.  

 As for the Viscounts’s history after “Nocturne,” the Pop History Dig has not yet been able to locate more detail on the group, but will update this page as new information is found.  The Viscounts had other songs, of course, including jazzy versions of “Summertime,” “September Song,” and “Sophisti- cated Lady.”  

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