Benny Meroff Benny Meroff Benny Meroff (1899-1973) was an American dance bandleader active in the swing jazz era. He also played violin, clarinet, and saxophone. Meroff started his career in vaudeville, and put together his own ensemble in the middle of the 1920s. His sidemen included Wild Bill Davison, Al King, Vernon Brown, Frank Teschemacher, and Santo Pecora. He was principally active in Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and also played in New York into the 1940s. Meroff was noted for his showmanship as a bandleader; big band historian Leo Walker described Meroff as "a capable emcee, equally at
Dickie Goodman 1973), the 1973 energy crisis with "Energy Crisis '74" (#33 in 1974), and Richard Nixon with "Mr. President" (#73 in 1974). Goodman failed to chart with a different version of "Mr. President" in 1981 after Ronald Reagan became president. In addition to work under his own name, Goodman also produced for other acts. John & Ernest's "Superfly Meets Shaft" (#31 in 1973), while oriented more toward a black audience, retained Goodman's "break-in" format. An unusual act Goodman produced was the Glass Bottle; Goodman created the band primarily as an advertising ploy to promote actual glass bottles, which were going out