The Benny Goodman story about the King of Swing starred Steve Allen as the clarinet player, and unlike Jimmy Stewart, the actor did play the instrument – soundtrack wise for the young Benny Goodman character’s beginning years – every single squeak. Then again, for a pianist to learn clarinet, Allen did a fair job.

While it seems to be the habit of almost any biopic in Hollywood that keeping to the true accuracy of the subject is secondary to a good story, this movie wasn’t quite as accurate as The Glenn Miller story, but it definitely had great music. There are more musicians in this one – Hampton and Krupa to name a couple – and to have Goodman provide the music to the soundtrack is the definite bonus here.

The Goodman story is a good film to have for background noise on a rainy day.