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Swinging London 1938: Nat Gonella & His Band - I'm Feeling Like a Million

1,940 views · Published 28 March 2016 · 3:08 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2016 · Music

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Chciałbym wygrać milion (The Polish title is: I'd Like To Win a Million; the original English title is: ’m Feeling Like a Million) Fokstrot (Freed-Brown) – Orkiestra taneczna z refrenem angielskim (Nat Gonella’s Dance Orchestra & Vocal refrain), Odeon 1946 (Polish re-pressing; originally recorded in London, 1938)

NOTE: Nat Gonella (1908-1998) was a boy from the northern London suburbs; he attended the school for underprivileged children, where he started plying cornet. During Jazz Age, he played cornet and trumpet in various local dance bands, including a sea resort in Brighton, until in 1929 he was contracted by Billy Cotton at one of London’s leading dance bands. During the Big Band Era in London, Nat Gonella joined several most prestigious dance bands, including Roy Fox’s and Lew Stone’s. He played trumpet and also, he was valued as superb vocalist, whose vocal style was reminiscent of Louis Armstrong.  In 1935 Gonella formed his own band The Georgians, who  took name from the hit “Georgia On My Mind” – which was recorded by Lew Stone’s band in UK in 1932, containing the fabulous Nat Gonella’s trumpet solo. The Georgians quickly became a headline band and their career was in progress until the outbreak of WW2. Gonella was recruited in 1941 as member of the Stars in Battledress army campaign, touring with his music in Northern Africa and in Europe. After the war, he reformed his band and The Georgians played again through the be-bop era, until in 1960s most of dance bands, including The Georgians, were brought to a halt by the advent of The Beatles. Gonella, however, remained active until his retirement in the 1970s., playing and singing in jazz clubs and pubs in the area where he lived, in Hampshire.  

This recording was originally made in London in 1938 and was also issued in Poland shortly before outbreak of the WW2. During a couple of years after 1945, the old Odeon matrixes were still used with Odeon labels for the re-pressed editions of old prewar hits, until in 1947 the Polish branch of Odeon was definitely closed by the communists and the government-controlled united record company Muza was formed in  place of the smaller firms.

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