Favourites of Wartime Britain

Steve Waters tells us in "The British Hit Singles" (RockHistory Ltd. 2013) that Glenn Miller and his Orchestra had thirty-four entries into the British charts of popular music between January 1940 and September 1946. Considering that the RCA masters for these HMV pressings were shipped from New York and had to run the gauntlet of the U-boat packs which prowled the Atlantic, it is fortunate that any Miller records were issued in wartime Britain. At the time there was a slight variation in the musical taste of the British and American audiences and there is one item which is glaringly missing from the British charts. That is Chattanooga Choo Choo! How could a record which was No.1 and a million-seller in the States fail to appeal to British record-buyers? After all, a similar record, Kalamazoo, was No.3 in the British charts. Let us celebrate the difference in musical tastes.