Artist: Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke up with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again". 

In 1934, the Dorsey Brothers band signed with Decca, having a hit with "I Believe in Miracles".  Glenn Miller was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934 and 1935, composing "Annie's Cousin Fanny", "Tomorrow's Another Day", "Harlem Chapel Chimes", and "Dese Dem Dose", all recorded for Decca, for the band. Acrimony between the brothers led to Tommy Dorsey walking out to form his own band in 1935 as the orchestra was having a hit with "Every Little Moment". Dorsey's orchestra was known primarily for its renderings of ballads at dance tempos, frequently with singers such as Jack Leonard and Frank Sinatra. 

By 1939, Dorsey was aware of criticism that his band lacked a jazz feeling. He hired arranger Sy Oliver away from the Jimmie Lunceford band. Sy Oliver's arrangements include "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie"; Oliver also composed two of the new band's signature instrumentals, "Well, Git It" and "Opus One". In 1940, Dorsey hired singer Frank Sinatra from bandleader Harry James. Sinatra made eighty recordings from 1940 to 1942 with the Dorsey band. Sinatra achieved his first great success as a vocalist in the Dorsey band, and claimed he learned breath control from watching Dorsey play trombone. 

Among Dorsey's staff of arrangers was Axel Stordahl, who arranged for Sinatra in his Columbia and  Capitol years. Another member of the Dorsey band was trombonist Nelson Riddle, who later had a partnership as one of Sinatra's arrangers and conductors in the 1950s and afterwards.

Dorsey disbanded his own orchestra at the end of 1946. Dorsey might have broken up his own band permanently following World War II, as many big bands did due to the shift in music economics following the war, but Tommy Dorsey's album for RCA Victor, "All Time Hits" placed in the top ten records in February 1947. In addition, "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?", a single recorded by Dorsey, became a top-ten hit in March 1947. As a result, Dorsey was able to re-organize a big band in early 1947. The Dorsey brothers were also reconciling.