Eric Coates (1886 – 1957) was an English composer of light music and a viola player. The Dambusters March is Eric Coates's stirring theme for the 1954 film The Dam Busters. It is critically and popularly acclaimed and made a tremendous contribution to the film, achieving iconic status. For many it is synonymous with the film — indeed with the exploit itself. The Dambusters March remains a favourite military band item at flypasts in the UK. The film score itself was completed by Leighton Lucas. Eric Coates was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, the son of a doctor, and studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1906. From 1910 he played in the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood, becoming principal violist in 1912. By the end of the 1910s he was concentrating entirely on composition, having been forced to give up the viola for medical reasons. He had an early success with the overture The Merrymakers (1922), but more popular was the London Suite (1933). Amongst his early champions was Sir Edward Elgar. He died in Chichester having suffered a stroke.

This is a popular song which has become a pop standard. The music was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer for a 1941 film which began with the working title "Hot Nocturne", but was finally released as "Blues in the Night". Alec Wilder said that this song "Was certainly a landmark in the evolution of American popular music, lyrically as well as musically". Mercer being from the South realised that Arlen's notes were meant to be sung as a blues slide and that individual syllables would have made the song too formal and too racially white. In 1941 "Blues in the Night" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. As a child I used to hear the words "My momma done tol' me" blasting from the wireless, but never really understood what they meant: Fifty years later I still don't!

Ernesto Júlio Nazareth (1863 - 1934) was a Brazilian composer and pianist, especially noted for his creative tango and Choro compositions. Samba first appeared as a distinctive kind of music at the beginning of the 20th century in Rio de Janeiro (then the capital of Brazil) under the strong influence of immigrant black people from the Brazilian state of Bahia. Samba is characterised by a syncopated 2/4 rhythm with a muted beat and a main beat, usually played by a surdo (bass drum) or tan-tan. Another important element is the cavaquinho, also known as cavaco, a small four-stringed instrument of the guitar family brought by the Portuguese: Hawaiian ukulele is a derivative. The cavaquinho is the connection between the harmony section and the rhythm section; its presence usually differentiates real samba from softer variations such as Bossa Nova.

"We'll all go riding on a rainbow". Written in 1933 by Henry MacGregor Woods (1896 - 1970) who was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist. Woods is sometimes credited as Harry Woods. Born in North Chelmsford Massachusetts his mother, a concert singer, encouraged him to play the piano in spite of being born with no fingers on his left hand!

"Five foot two, eyes of blue". Written in 1925 by Ray Henderson (1896 – 1970) with words by Samuel Lewis and Joseph Young. Born Raymond Brost in Buffalo New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley.

"Somebody stole my gal". Words & Music written in 1918 by Leo Wood. This song is probably best remembered (by some of us anyway) as the signature tune of "The Billy Cotton Bandshow"!

Ray Noble (1903 – 1978) was a British bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day. The most popular vocalist with Noble's studio band was Al Bowlly. This piece is now a pop standard and was published in 1934. In addition to Noble's own hit recording of the song with his orchestra, there was also a popular version recorded that same year by Bing Crosby. A decade later the song was in the charts again with a version by Vaughn Monroe. Doris Day sang the song in the 1950 movie Young Man with a Horn, a fictional tale partly based on the life of early jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. An instrumental version of the song was also as background music for the film Casablanca in the scene where Sascha kisses Rick Blaine on the cheek.

The song was originally written as "Leningradskie Vechera" ("Leningrad Nights" in English) by two well-established authors, composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy and poet Mikhail Matusovsky in 1955. At the request of the Soviet Ministry of Culture the song title was changed to "Podmoskovnye Vechera" ("Moscow Nights" in English) and the original lines of the song were also changed. The British jazz group Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen had a hit with the song in 1961 under the title "Midnight in Moscow", and film exists which shows them actually playing it at a concert in Moscow.

David Rose (1910 – 1990) was a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger and orchestra leader. His most famous compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings" and "Calypso Melody". He also wrote music for the television series Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza. Recipient of four Emmy awards, David Rose was born in London to Jewish parents and raised in Chicago Illinois. He was married for a while to the actress and singer Judy Garland and died in Burbank California at the age of 80. He was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills California. "The Stripper" is a famous piece of music composed by Rose. It evinces a jazz influence and is famously used in stripteases. It played recently in the Wallace and Gromit film Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and it even played in time to the "Breakfast" scene on The Morecambe and Wise Show. It also is often used in cartoons and sitcoms when an attractive female enters a scene. It also plays in the film The Full Monty.

Ray Noble (1903 – 1978) was a British bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day. The most popular vocalist with Noble's studio band was Al Bowlly. Noble wrote both lyrics and music and contributed "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" and "Cherokee" to the rolls of great popular music. His song "The Very Thought Of You" is among the greatest of all popular songs and the recording by Al Bowlly with Noble's studio orchestra is incomparable. Noble played the piano but seldom did so with his orchestra.

Summer Samba (also known as "So Nice" or its original Portuguese title "Samba de Verão") is a 1966 bossa nova song by Brazilian composer Marcos Valle with English language lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The original Portuguese lyrics came from Paulo Sérgio Valle brother to the composer. Marcos Kostenbader Valle (born September 14, 1943 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian singer, songwriter and record producer. His work including bossa novas, sambas and incidental music for drama has found success across many musical styles all over the world. The song was first popularised by the Walter Wanderley Trio in 1966 with versions by Johnny Mathis, Vikki Carr and Connie Francis during that same decade. Other notable versions include those by Astrud Gilberto and later by Bebel Gilberto, both of which recordings have been used in several television programs and in widely broadcast TV advertisements. As of the year 2000 the song had been recorded by more than 180 different artists worldwide.

Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (1927 - 1994) also known as Tom Jobim, was a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer and pianist/guitarist. A primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, Jobim is acknowledged as one of the most influential popular composers of the 20th century. His songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally. "Wave" (also known as "Vou Te Contar" in Portuguese) was recorded as an instrumental on Jobim's 1967 album of the same name. English lyrics were added by Jobim for a 1969 recording by Frank Sinatra released on his 1970 album "Sinatra & Company". On that recording Sinatra sung his lowest note, a low Eb! Another notable recording was made by Mel Tormé, live at the Fujitsu-Concord Festival 1990.

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 – 1868) was a popular Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), La Cenerentola and Guillaume Tell (William Tell). He was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy. His father Giuseppe was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother Anna was a singer and baker's daughter. Rossini's parents began his musical training early, and by the age of six he was playing the triangle in his father's band. He was known almost as well as a gastronome and had many dishes named for him, notably Tournedos Rossini; as well as eggs, chicken, soup, salad, cannelloni, sole, risotto, pheasant and more. Escoffier was responsible for many of these, and Charles Ranhofer created Meringued pancakes à la Rossini.