Irving Aaronson & His Commanders - Hard To Get Gertie, 1926

Irving Aaronson and His Commanders, Refrain vocal by Irving Aaronson -- Hard To Get Gertie (Jack Yellen / Milton Ager), Victor 1926 (USA) NOTE: Irving AARONSON (b.1895 in NYC -- d. 1963 in Hollywood, CA) American jazz pianist and bandleader. From age 11 he played piano and made accompaniment in silent movie theaters. In 1921 he co-wrote a hit song, Boo-Hoo-Hoo and thereafter formed his own band, The Versatile Sextette. During the 1920s he led two big bands, the later, renamed in 1925 the Crusaders Dance Band signed with the Victor label where the band name was changed to Irving Aaronson and his Commanders. In 1927 for Victor they made their notable success with Let's Misbehave in 1927 and appeared in Cole Porter's Broadway musical Paris, in 1928. The late Roaring Twenties were Aaronson's band's heyday, when they were billed as one of the best East Coast hot dance bands and included excellent musicians such as Phil Saxe, Joe Gillespie, Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa and Tony Pastor. In 1930s, Aaronson appeared in the Irving Aaronson Orchestra radio program on NBC. The band toured movie theatres and ballrooms across the U.S. before calling it quits in the mid-1930s, at which time Aaronson went to work as a musical director for MGM studios. He remained there as assistant to producer Joe Pasternak until his death from a heart attack in 1963.