Artie Shaw Quotes

I love most melodic music - classical, reggae, big band, jazz, blues, country, pop, swing, folk.

I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band.

Nobody had any idea that 'If You Could Read My Mind' would become a hit single.

When it comes to our 'Jai ho,' the song became a super hit because of the composition of Rahman... He made the tune.

'Drip Too Hard' - we knew that was the one.

I think that band [Glenn Miller] was the beginning of the end. It was a mechanized version of what they called jazz music. I still can't stand to listen to it.

When 'I'm Sorry' came out and became such a huge hit, that made 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' start selling. Then that became a huge, huge hit.

We used to call it recurrent airplay when someone had a hit.

There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time.

Big band music, to me, it really has three key elements. First is the lyrics are really sweet, and they're just really family-friendly. The second thing is the music is jazz music, so the music is complicated enough to hold your attention for 5 or 6 million plays. That makes the songs interesting. The last part is the fact that it's danceable.

You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.

Swing will never sound as good as it did in the '40s.

Because usually in the past when I was in a big band, that was all I did.

I had no idea 'Big Green Tractor' was going to be as big a hit as it was. You just can't predict those things.

When I was a kid, I used to listen to my Emerson radio late at night under the covers. I started by listening to jazz in the late 1940s and then vocal harmony groups like the Four Freshmen, the Modernaires and the Hi-Lo's. I loved Stan Kenton's big band - with those dark chords and musicians who could swing cool with individual sounds.

Mozart often wrote to his family that certain variations or sections of pieces were so successful that they had to be encored immediately, even without waiting for the entire piece to end.

It's a weird thing to say you want people to be sick of your song, but I guess that's what happens if your song goes really well.

To think that when they come out with these gigantic songs, it's pretty tough to top them, you know.

When I was playing piano, it was like, 'I'm going to write a song using all the white keys.' My music director, who knew my jazz background, suggested I try big-band music, so we spent a year experimenting with it in concert, and the audience reaction was really good.

I'm very proud of my band and my musicians.

'Despacito' is phenomenal; you can't really chase that type of success. I'm a huge fan of the record, the original, and then when the remix came out, I said, 'Oh my God, it just got greater!'

That's what we grew up with - the good songs, the good lyrics, the good big-band stuff. I miss that era.

'Linger' was the first song I wrote after joining the Cranberries. I was 18, and the youngest member of the band was 16 at the time. We never imagined it'd be such a big hit.

I can't wait to see someone else from Louisville make a hit song 'cos that'd be dope. I can only imagine how J Cole would feel if somebody just came out of Fayetteville and started booming with some crazy records.

I think no composer knows he's creating a hit until the audience gives it a nod.