Vincent Lopez was a bandleader who had to make a career choice early in life; one he knew was going to disappoint his parents.

They wanted him to become a priest. Instead he spent 57 years playing and leading dance bands. Hardly the spiritual life his family wanted but still something he wanted to do. "His mom and dad wanted him to become a priest. Back then, you did what your mom and dad wanted you to do or wanted you to become. I think he tried to obey what their wishes were.," said Vincent Lopez Jr. in an interview with Christopher Popa for Big Band Library.com. Obviously, it didn't pan out so he relied on his second love, music.

Like so many musicians of that time, he came from New York City, Brooklyn, in fact.

It was a plus for all kinds of reasons but the most obvious was that the city offered more employment possibilities; opportunities with an array of musical groups and his early training on piano gave him added weight. New York, afterall, was where most musicians wanted to play.

His father, Antonio, taught piano, and Vincent gained from his father's talent.

His personality was another plus. "He was very personable. . .a vibrant personality. I think that's what kept him going for years. Almost to the end. Of course, his eyesight was failing towards the end so he could hardly see the music. Most of it ( his music) was memory and so at that point, it was time to give it up," his son said.

What made his music and band so popular?

Said his son: " I think it basically was a little bit of a society-slash-sweet band. Sometimes if you listen to Lawrence Welk, it was almost the same style. I think if you were to watch the old films on televisions from the '30s and '40s where the scene was shot in a nightclub more of the time they didn't have bands then. They would have society bands or sweet bands ---you know what I'm trying to say---It's really hard to explain. I mean Guy Lombardo was a sugary sweet band. I remember talking to Guy many years ago and his brother Lebert. I was just curious about their success and he said: 'We really never had any intricate arrangements. It was always the melody and that was it. The people like to hear melody."

But success for Vincent came in non-musical ways, too.

For example, Lopez was the first to do remote broadcasts on radio as the medium became popular for broadcasting music. "It was a station called WUJ," Lopez Jr continued. "It was Nov. 27, 1921 what happened was the announcer for the date was late. The band went on the air and there was nobody to introduce them. My father got up there at the last moment and said 'Hello everybody.... Lopez speaking. And it stuck with him for years. That became the 'password' synonymous with the orchestra." What a password it was too. The band's popularity soared throughout the metropolitan New York City area. Within a year, the Lopez Orchestra recorded its first number---Nola---and it became a signature tune for them. It later was recut a number of times and was always included in any of his appearances. Even later, Nola and Lopez became so inseparable . . . the New York Times used it in its crossword puzzle section to the question: 'What was Vincent Lopez theme song?'

His continued success at places like Hotel Pennsylvania and the St. Regis Hotel in New York City brought about the Lopez band's contract with the Taft Hotel. Vincent and the band were hired to play at the famous Grill Room. "It was steady work and staying in the same place was great," Vincent Jr. replied.

"The band was done early and a lot of times back in those days, if you weren't traveling New York it was the mecca of all the hotel bands and a lot of great musicians." The Lopez Orchestra, which was the title of the organization, became a strong draw and it continued a long term relationship with the Taft for more than 20 years.

His rival in the business was Lombardo who had arrived from Canada in the 20s and began playing in Cleveland before Guy took the band to the Big Apple. "At any given time in the '20s and '30s my dad had five or six bands out under the Lopez name. There were different leaders and a lot of society events, such as the Newport area, so there could be a Lopez band playing any number of events, " Vincent Jr. said.

Like Sammy Kaye, an Ohio bandleader who graduated during the Depression from Ohio University with an engineering degree and tossed the credential to lead a band, finding a feature to attract attention was important to bandleaders of the day. Kaye brought attention with his "So You Want to Lead A Band."

Vincent introduced a "Shake the Maraccas" contest. He used the maraccas much like Kaye used the baton in his bandleading contest. "He used to give away maraccas as a remembrance of the show "then there were shows called Luncheon with Lopez that were 15 minute broadcasts and he used to be on in the evening time as well five or six times a day." Betty Hutton joined the band in 1938 and did 11 or so novelty numbers such as Old Man Mose Ain't Dead, Hold Tight and Cuckoo in the Clock while with the band. She and her sister Marion were with the Lopez Orchestra for a time until Marion left. Betty stayed although she got wind from band members that things weren't going well and the band might close down. Betty started doing novelty routines which Vincent thought were hilarious. It kept her with the musical group for a few more years.

The elder Lopez felt confident of his financial and professional status in New York City and he opened his own nightclub in 1925. It featured his band and other entertainers. "It was called Casa Lopez," said his son who said his father was doing one night stands at the same time. The club burned down a year after it was open and then it re-opened in another location. But it never made it. It closed down three years after it opened.

Vincent got himself involved in another tempest in the late 1930s when he attempted to rewrite the Star Spangled Banner. Once again, his intent didn't match the public's interest and the effort to put a new version out didn't work.

Said Vincent Jr. "Because it's (the Star Spangled Banner) so hard. . . if your singers or vocalists today try to sing it sometimes they get all screwed up because of the notes and the keys are all over the place," said his son. He continued to pioneer his kind of society music in radio and he later had his own TV show in the 1950s on the DuMont TV network. He died in 1975 at 79, from complications of a stroke in Miami, FL.

His sound and music are being continued today by his son Vincent Jr. "Back in the '60s I was a young guy. I didn't want to be tied down to a shlocky band. I went out. I was doing things on my own, playing with other bands. It never occurred to me to play in my dad's band. Hindsight's 20/20 you know. And back then I thought it was a waste of time and nobody wanted to hear this stuff anymore. Unbeknownst to me they did and they do. I regret it but you can't go back," said Vincent's son.

Today? Vincent Jr. leads the "Famous Vincent Lopez Orchestra" which was reorganized in 1979 playing many of the tunes his father made famous.

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