I’ve been in the “music biz”  of sorts for 45 years.  Most of it playing country music on the radio, and I have been blessed.  Truth be told, I love all kinds of music, and that comes from my mom. She was into the arts her entire life, and I was exposed to all kinds of music as a kid.  Rock, jazz, instrumental, big bands, snow tunes, classical and more.  Of course when young, I had little use for some of these.  But things change as you get older, and now I’m so glad I know a fair amount about all of these.

You here us talk a lot about “Gold Records” or “Platinum Records”, million sellers and terms like that, but what do they mean?  They are certifications of a certain amount of confirmed sales of a song, or album.  Anything Gold or beyond is a very good seller and they’ve earned the award, it’s a hit record.  So when did this all begin?

Well, it was this week, 1942.  The idea of it came from RCA Victor Records, as they spray painted an album, of theirs, Millers record label, and presented it to Glenn Miller and his Big Band Orchestra for their recording of Chattanooga Choo-Choo, sung with his band by Dorothy Dandridge that sold over a half million albums that year.  As time went on, the idea grew and the certification process did too. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) “officially” established the gold record in 1958.  

But it wasn’t Hank Sr,  it wasn’t The Beatles, or Elvis, it was Glenn Miller.  Cool Story –   BTW he was a major influence for the future generation that invented Rock And Roll.