The Dorsey Brothers
Sometimes big bands just aren’t big enough. In May 1935, during a performance at the Glen Island Casino in New York, Tommy Dorsey walked off the bandstand after an argument with his brother Jimmy about the tempo of a song. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, which, with a changing roster of impressive musicians, had recorded hits like Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” since the late ’20s, thus morphed into the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.
Tommy, a trombonist, led his own band — which eventually included a young Frank Sinatra — and became known as “The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing.” Jimmy, who played sax and clarinet, was a highly successful bandleader too, until the music scene shifted mid-century. In 1953, more than three decades after they’d formed their first group together as teenagers and just a few years before they died, the siblings reunited as the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, featuring Jimmy Dorsey. They’d already appeared together onscreen, playing themselves in the 1947 fictionalized biopic The Fabulous Dorseys.
Next: The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins
When the Smashing Pumpkins announced on May 23, 2000, that the band was ending its 12-year run, lead singer Billy Corgan blamed Britney Spears. Corgan, who had started the alt-rock band in Chicago with guitarist James Iha and bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, attributed the breakup to his “fighting the good fight against the Britneys of the world.” The band gave a four-hour farewell performance at the venue where it debuted — the Cabaret Metro in Chicago. Iha reportedly left the December 2, 2000, show without saying goodbye.
More than three years later, Corgan said the band had split because of Iha. Describing the conflict to Spin magazine, the front man said it was a “cancerous can’t-live-with-you-but-can’t-live-without-you situation.” Corgan also said he once begged Iha (from his knees) and asked, “Whatever it is, just forgive me.” Iha denied he was the cause. The band had gone through several shakeups prior to 2000. In 1996 touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin overdosed on heroin; Melvoin died and Chamberlin was fired. In 1999 Wretzky left the band to pursue acting, though Corgan said she was also fired because of drug use. On June 25, 2005, in a full-page ad in Chicago newspapers, Corgan declared his desire to “renew and revive” the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan and Chamberlain reunited and released Zeitgeist in 2007. Iha and Wretzky did not participate.
Next: Blondie
