Ray Noble

Ray Noble was a British bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble was born in Brighton, England on December 17, 1903 and died in London on April 3, 1978. Noble studied music at Cambridge and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day. The most popular vocalist with Noble's studio band was Al Bowlly.
The Bowlly/Noble recordings achieved popularity in the United States. Union bans prevented Noble from taking British musicians to America so he arranged for Glenn Miller to recruit American musicians. The American Ray Noble band had a successful run at the Rainbow Room in New York City with Bowlly as principal vocalist.
Bowlly returned to England but Noble continued to lead bands in America, moving into an acting career portraying a stereotypical upper-class English idiot. His last major successes as a bandleader came with Buddy Clark in the late 1940s.
Noble wrote both lyrics and music and contributed "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" and "Cherokee" to the rolls of great popular music. His song "The Very Thought Of You" is among the greatest of all popular songs and the recording by Al Bowlly with Noble's studio orchestra is incomparable. Another significant recording of the song was made by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, on her 1961 album Ella Swings Gently with Nelson.
Ray Noble was also an arranger who scored a lot of hits in the 1930s: "Easy to Love" (1937), "Mad About the Boy" (1935), "Paris in the Spring" (1935).
Noble and Bowlly's 1932 recording of "Midnight, the Stars and You" was prominently featured on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining in 1980.
For another sample of a Noble/Bowlly classic, the song "Guilty" can be found on the Amélie film soundtrack.
Noble also provided music for many radio shows like The Charlie McCarthy Show and Burns and Allen, where in addition to leading the band he played a somewhat "dense" character who was in love with Gracie Allen. His catchphrase was "Gracie, this is the first time we ever been alone together."

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