William James Finegan was an American jazz bandleader, pianist, arranger, and composer. He was an arranger in the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Life and career
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Finegan grew up in a household full of piano players. While growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, he attended Rumson-Fair Haven High School and taught orchestration to schoolmate Nelson Riddle, and he studied piano with Elizabeth Connelly, piano and musicianship with flautist/alto saxophonist Rudolph John Winthrop, himself a student of Engelbert Humperdinck. He spent time studying at the Paris Conservatory and had his first professional experience leading his own piano trio. Finegan was offered a job as a staff arranger for Glenn Miller after Tommy Dorsey bought a copy of his "Lonesome Road" and recommended him; he remained with Miller until 1942, and arranged such hits as "Little Brown Jug", "Sunrise Serenade", "Song of the Volga Boatmen", Stardust, A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square and "Jingle Bells", arranged in collaboration with Glenn Miller. Finegan also arranged music for films in which the band appeared, such as Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. He then worked off and on for Tommy Dorsey from 1942 to 1952, including on the 1947 filmThe Fabulous Dorseys. After the demise of Miller's orchestra in 1942, Finegan joined Horace Heidt, writing "some pieces for the band that immediately sent its musical stock skyward." In 1947-48 Finegan studied with Stefan Wolpe in NYC, and lived in Europe from 1948-1950 where he studied with Darius Milhaud and Valérie Soudères, a pianist and composer who premiered Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto in Paris. After returning to the United States, in 1952, Finegan and Eddie Sauter formed a highly successful ensemble, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, which remained active until 1957. His composition "Doodletown Fifers" was one of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra's best-known originals. Following this Finegan found work inadvertising, writing music for commercials. In the 1970s he arranged for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Mel Lewis's orchestra. He taught jazz at the University of Bridgeport in the 1980s. He wrote arrangements for cornetist Warren Vaché in 2004, and the vocal groupChanticleer until his death in 2008.
Compositions
He composed "Down For The Count", "Conversation Piece", "Are Ya Jumpin' Jack?", recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, "Doodletown Fifers", "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum", "Doodletown Races", "Yankee Doodletown", "Pussy Willow", "Bingo, Bango, Boffo", "Hollywood Hat", "Piccalilli Dilly", "Church Mouse", "Alright Already", "Texas Tex", recorded by Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1946, "Child's Play", and "Tail End Charlie" which was released by Glenn Miller and his AAFTC Orchestra as a V-Disc, no. 144A, in March, 1944.
Finegan's first wife was Kay Finegan. They divorced in the early sixties. Finegan was married to Rosemary O Reilly Finegan. They had a son James Finegan and a daughter Helen Dzujna.
