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Leroy Anderson and his brother Russell worked in a number of dance bands in the Boston area, and then their band worked the ocean liners running between the US and Scandinavian countries. It was a good way to meet women, and Leroy married one of them just before the war.

With Pearl Harbor, Leroy was drafted into the Army where his facility with languages earned him a spot in Iceland intercepting and translating German military and diplomatic communications. After a stint at OCS, Captain Anderson went to the Pentagon to head the Scandinavian desk at Military Intelligence. While he and Eleanor were living in Arlington, he wrote two pieces for the Boston Pops, and Fiedler handed him the baton for the premiere. The first piece was to score #12 on the Hit Parade and make Leroy a fortune when CBS television decided to use it as the theme for its afternoon and late night movies. That high oboe line is inspired.

Anderson: “The Syncopated Clock”

The companion piece filled out the disk, and it contains hints of a few Scandinavian composers.

”Promenade”