In honor of Memorial Day, here’s a classic song from World War II — my late World War II veteran father’s generation. Here are The Andrews Sister in the original rendition of The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, as performed in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiVkdVPGoY&feature=fvwThey redid it as a special number to be shown to the troops as well:’
Some young Andrews Sisters’ impersonators did this version in 2008:
Years later Bette Midler made it a big production number in her act — taking the number to a new, rousing level in terms of vocals and choreography (WARNING: Audio is much louder in this version):
Even Alvin and the Chipmonks did the number (TURN UP volume):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0bNG8aO4o
And here’s a cool school project using the original Andrews Sisters recording with some great visuals:
The Airforce Band of the West has done it as one of its numbers:
A middle school band does it, too:
I’m now waiting for someone to do a Jewish version: The Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy of Company B.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.