Song:This Could Be The Start Of Something Big
Album:Steve Allen's 75th Birthday Celebration
Steve Allen is probably best known as the man who invented the late night talk show as the first host of The Tonight Show. But he was also an accomplished jazz pianist and composer and a big advocate for jazz musicians. He wrote This Could Be The Start Of Something Big and it became his theme song. He was born Dec. 26, 1921 and was raised in Chicago by his vaudeville performer mother. Allen moved to Los Angeles after WWII and hosted his own radio show. Then he got into TV on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and then What's My Line?. Allen signed with Brunswick Records in 1953 but was too busy to record most of the time. Allen wrote This Could Be The Start Of Something Big for the 1954 TV show The Bachelor. He first hosted The Steve Allen Show in New York in 1954. NBC took it national as Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1956. He made This Could Be The Start Of Something Big the opening theme and it became Allen's theme song. Lots of folks have recorded it, most famously Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. Allen did record a jazz version of the song. That's not available. But you can get it on this CD of a 1998 PBS TV special celebrating his 75th birthday. Vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and Allen's wife Jayne Meadows appear on the CD. Allen left The Tonight Show for the prime time The Steve Allen Show in 1957. But he always had that musical side though he was mainly known as a TV star. Steve Allen died on Oct. 30, 2000 at age 78. Here's Steve Allen with Ann Southern, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra performing This Could Be The Start Of Something Big on a 1958 episode of The Steve Allen Show.
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