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Question: While we were ...
Question: While we were watching a TV commercial using the song "Route 66," my mom claimed she dated the guy who wrote the song and that he played a doctor on Emergency!. While I know you can't confirm whether she dated him, can you at least tell me if he actually wrote the song? — Kate R., New York, N.Y. Televisionary: Indeed he did, Kate. Bobby Troup, a bandleader, musician and actor, wrote the famed "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" in 1946 while driving cross country from his native Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to chase his music-career dreams. "He showed it to Nat King Cole. Nat loved it and he had a charmed life ever since," a friend told Variety after Troup passed away in early 1999. Nat wasn't the only one, either. The song has been recorded by a slew of musicians, ranging from Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters to The Rolling Stones and Depeche Mode (and is sometimes confused with the Nelson Riddle
Question: While we were watching a TV commercial using the song "Route 66," my mom claimed she dated the guy who wrote the song and that he played a doctor on Emergency!. While I know you can't confirm whether she dated him, can you at least tell me if he actually wrote the song? — Kate R., New York, N.Y.
Televisionary: Indeed he did, Kate. Bobby Troup, a bandleader, musician and actor, wrote the famed "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" in 1946 while driving cross country from his native Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to chase his music-career dreams. "He showed it to Nat King Cole. Nat loved it and he had a charmed life ever since," a friend told Variety after Troup passed away in early 1999.
Nat wasn't the only one, either. The song has been recorded by a slew of musicians, ranging from Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters to The Rolling Stones and Depeche Mode (and is sometimes confused with the Nelson Riddle theme song from the hit show).
On the big screen, Troup appeared in The Gene Krupa Story and M*A*S*H. On TV, he hosted ABC's Stars of Jazz in 1958 and appeared with wife Julie London on NBC's Emergency! (produced by her ex, Jack Webb) as neurosurgeon Joe Early from 1972-77.