Frankie Carle

This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Frankie Carle fondly told the story that his parents could not afford a piano so young Frankie practiced on a fake keyboard his uncle made for him out of an orange crate.  When he was about 16, Frankie was given an old upright piano from a dance hall in Rhode Island that had just purchased a new piano.  The rest is history as Frankie went on to front his own big band which produced several top selling hits and he became a noted songwriter.  Among the songs he wrote were: “Falling Leaves”, “Roses in the Rain”, “Oh! What It Seems To Be”, and “Sunrise Serenade”, which was famously recorded by Glen Gray and Glenn Miller.