LARRY ELGART, 95, on August 29 in Sarasota, Florida. Playing the alto saxophone, he began traveling with some of the biggest-name bands of the day at the age of 15 to support his family during the Great Depression. He teamed up with his older brother Les to record a series of successful albums for Columbia that featured the distinctive “Elgart Sound” – tight choreography between the sax section and horns, plus two bass trombones, and a guitar replacing the piano in the rhythm section.
The band had a lucrative 15-year run as “American’s College Prom Favorite.” Larry co-wrote the theme song for the long-running television dance show, American Bandstand, and later scored a big hit with Hooked on Swing, a medley of swing classics set to a disco beat that sold over three million copies and peaked at #31 on the Billboard charts in 1982.
