24 Facts About Tex Beneke

Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader.

Tex Beneke's career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller.

Tex Beneke's band is associated with the careers of Eydie Gorme, Henry Mancini, and Ronnie Deauville.

Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Tex Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s.

Tex Beneke started playing saxophone when he was nine, going from soprano to alto to tenor saxophones and staying with the last.

Tex Beneke was flying all over the country looking for new talent and he stopped at our ballroom one night [to listen to the Ben Young band].

Tex Beneke is listed in the personnel of the 1941 Metronome All-Star Band led by Benny Goodman.

That arrangement featured Tex Beneke both singing and soloing on the sax, the Modernaires and band vocalist Marion Hutton in a not-too-dissimilar fashion.

When Miller broke up the band in August 1942 to join the Army Air Force, Tex Beneke played very briefly with Horace Heidt before joining the Navy himself, leading a Navy band in Oklahoma.

Tex Beneke wanted to come back to Miller after the war and learn more about leading a band before being given his own band.

Tex Beneke led two bands in the navy and kept in touch with Miller while they were both serving in the military.

Tex Beneke believed that Miller had promised him his own band in the early 1940s, and this was his chance to have that promise fulfilled.

Tex Beneke continued to perform under his own name with no official connection to Miller.

Tex Beneke enjoyed less success in the early 1950s, partly because he was limited to smaller recording labels such as Coral Records and partly because of competition from other Miller alumni and imitators such as Jerry Gray, Ray Anthony, and Ralph Flanagan.

Tex Beneke appeared on Cavalcade of Bands, a television show in 1950 on the DuMont Television Network.

Tex Beneke joined a number of other leaders such as Larry Clinton and Glen Gray in making new high fidelity recordings of their earlier hits, often featuring many of the original musicians.

Tex Beneke made the rounds of various talk shows that had musical connections, including those hosted by Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson.

In 1972, Tex Beneke agreed to re-record some of his Miller vocals for Time-Life Records' set of big band recreations, The Swing Era, produced and conducted by yet another Miller alumnus, Billy May.

Tex Beneke suffered a stroke in the mid-1990s and was forced to give up the saxophone, but continued to conduct and sing.

In 1991, Tex Beneke received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with funds collected by co-leader Gary Tole.

Tex Beneke settled in Costa Mesa, California, and remained active toward the end of that decade, mostly touring the US West Coast and still playing in something resembling the Miller style.

In 2000, Beneke died from respiratory failure at a nursing home in Costa Mesa, California, aged 86, and was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tex Beneke was survived by his wife, Sandra, of Santa Ana, California.

Tex Beneke's saxophone is currently used by the Arizona Opry.