Died On This Date (June 4, 2008) Bill Finegan / Arranger For Tommy Dorsey & Glenn Miller
themusicsover Bill Finegan
April 3, 1917 – June 4, 2008
Bill Finegan, was a music arranger that helped such big band greats as Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller formulate their sounds. He arranged suts hits as “Sunrise Serenade,” and “Little Brown Jug.” Finegan also arranged music for films like The Fabulous Dorseys, Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade. In later years, Fenegan wrote music for commercials and taught music at the Univerisity of Bridgeport. Bill Finegan died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 90.
Ozzie Nelson was a popular radio and television personality and band leader. By the early ’30s, Nelson was fronting his Ozzie Nelson Band who had a hits with “Over Somebody Else’s Shoulder” and “It’s Gonna Be You.” In 1935, Nelson married the band’s singer, Harriet Hilliard and together they had two sons, David and 
Born and raised in New Orleans, Sam Butera took up the saxophone as a child. Almost immediately after he graduated from high school, Butera was playing professionally, and within a few years in was playing with the likes of 
Rowland “Bunny” Berigan was born in Wisconsin in 1908 where he became proficient at the violin and trumpet at a very young age. By his late 20s, he was playing in a local and respected orchestra. Within a couple years, he was getting a lot work as a session man and was soon working with the Dorsey Brothers and 
Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, Tito Puente became one of the most influential Latin Jazz and mambo musicians. His energetic albums and performances were revered the world over. After serving in the Navy during WWII, Puente returned to New York and used his GI Bill to study music at the Juilliard School Of Music, thus launching a career that would span 50 years. Over his career, he received five Grammys, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Key to New York City, an induction into the National Congressional Record, a Smithsonian Medal, but perhaps most important, he was immortalized appearing as “himself” in The Simpsons’ famous “Who Shot Mr. Burns” episode. Puente suffered a heart attack following a show in Puerto Rico and died during heart surgery back in New York City on May 31, 2000.