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Soundies were an early version of the music video
Music video

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a pop music or rock music song with lyrics. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings....
: three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946. (The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was released in March, 1947.) The films were displayed on the Panoram
Panoram

Panoram was the trademark name of a visual jukebox that played music accompanied by a synched, filmed image popular within the United States during the 1940s....
, a coin-operated film jukebox
Jukebox

A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media....
, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centers.

Soundies covered all genres of music, from classical to big-band swing, and from hillbilly novelties to patriotic songs.






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Soundies were an early version of the music video
Music video

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a pop music or rock music song with lyrics. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings....
: three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946. (The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was released in March, 1947.) The films were displayed on the Panoram
Panoram

Panoram was the trademark name of a visual jukebox that played music accompanied by a synched, filmed image popular within the United States during the 1940s....
, a coin-operated film jukebox
Jukebox

A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media....
, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centers.

Soundies covered all genres of music, from classical to big-band swing, and from hillbilly novelties to patriotic songs. Charles Magnante
Charles Magnante

Charles Magnante was an American piano accordion, arranger, composer, author and educator. His artistry helped raise the image of the accordion from an instrument considered suitable only for folk music to an instrument accepted in many music genres....
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey

James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent United States jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader....
, Spike Jones
Spike Jones

Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones was a popular musician and bandleader specializing in performing satirical arrangements of popular songs. Ballads and classical works receiving the Jones treatment would be punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells and ridiculous vocals....
, Liberace
Liberace

Wladziu Valentino Liberace , better known by only his last name Liberace , was a famous United States entertainer and pianist of Poles and Italian people descent....
, Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb Kenton was a pianist who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial United States jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
, Gale Storm
Gale Storm

Josephine Owaissa Cottle , better known as Gale Storm, is an American actress and singer, who starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show....
, Kay Starr
Kay Starr

Kay Starr is an United States jazz singer who enjoyed considerable success in the 1950s....
, Doris Day
Doris Day

Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff is a German-American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate known as Doris Day. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of the biggest box-office stars....
, Gloria Parker
Gloria Parker

Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
, The Hoosier Hot Shots
Hoosier Hot Shots

The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of madcap musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid 1930s into the 1970s....
, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an influentialUnited States jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style....
, Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was an United States jazz singer. Jazz Critic Will Friedwald has said ?When you think of the great jazz singers, I would think that Anita is the only white woman that belongs in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.?...
, Merle Travis
Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an United States country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the exploitation of coal miners....
, and Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk

Lawrence Welk was a musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, hosting The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans as "champagne music." He is a 1961 inductee of North Dakota's Roughrider Award....
 were a few of the Soundies stars. More than 1800 of the Soundies mini-musicals were made, and many of them have been released to home video.

Today Soundies are perhaps best known for the performances of African-American artists who had fewer opportunities to perform in public venues. Fats Waller
Fats Waller

Fats Waller was an United States Jazz piano, organ , composer and comedy entertainer....
, Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan was a pioneering United States jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s....
, Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an United States actress and popular singer. Dandridge was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress....
, Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner was an United States blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri, Missouri....
, Meade Lux Lewis
Meade Lux Lewis

Meade Anderson "Lux" Lewis was a United States pianist and composer noted for his work in the Boogie Woogie style. His best known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded in various contexts, often in a big band arrangement....
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Benny Carter, and Billy Eckstine....
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
, and Stepin Fetchit
Stepin Fetchit

Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, eventually becoming a millionaire, the first black actor in history to do so....
 all made Soundies.

Beginning in 1941 Soundies experimented with expanding its format, and filmed comedy Soundies with Our Gang
Our Gang

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together....
 star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Broadway comic Willie Howard, dialect comedians Smith and Dale, and silent-movie comedians The Keystone Kops. Most of these films were non-musical, and were not as well received as the musical Soundies. Soundies abandoned the comedy-sketch idea, but continued to produce filmed versions of comic novelty songs.

Select music Soundies


  • Broadway and Main with Stepin Fetchit
    Stepin Fetchit

    Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry. Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career, eventually becoming a millionaire, the first black actor in history to do so....
     and Gloria Parker
    Gloria Parker

    Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
    , produced by William Forest Crouch, music and lyrics
    Lyrics

    Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song, either by speaking or singing. The word 'lyric' comes from the Greek word ,lyricos, meaning "singing to the lyre"....
     by Gloria Parker
    Gloria Parker

    Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
    .
  • Penthouse Party featuring Gloria Parker
    Gloria Parker

    Glorious Gloria Parker is an United States entertainer and female icon during the Big Band or Swing Era, as an all girl bandleader. The Gloria Parker Show aired nightly coast to coast on WABC and Gloria entertained her audience playing the marimba, organ and the singing glasses or glass harp....
     playing the glass harp
    Glass Harp

    Glass Harp is a Youngstown, Ohio based power trio consisting of guitarist Phil Keaggy, drummer John Sferra and bassist Daniel Pecchio....
     and/or musical glasses, produced by William Forest Crouch.


Further reading

  • The Soundies Book: A Revised and Expanded Guide (2007) by Scott MacGillivray
    Scott MacGillivray

    Scott MacGillivray is an American non-fiction author specializing in motion picture history.His book Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward, published in 1998, chronicles the later films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy....
     and Ted Okuda
    Ted Okuda

    Ted Okuda is an American non-fiction author in film, television, and entertainment subjects. He has many books and magazine features to his credit, under his own name and in collaboration with others....
    .


External links

  • Soundies - A musical history DVD previews
  • , hosted by Michael Feinstein.
  • , by Nigel Bewley.