Paul Whiteman

He was nominated for the 2014 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts and the Entertainment Category.

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, he always kept an open, and enthusiastic, mind about what was going on in the music world. In 1966, he admitted that The Beatles were "turning out some lovely stuff," and that "were I a young man getting started in the music business these days, I'd probably grow my hair long and form a rock 'n' roll band."

Co-founded Capitol Records in 1942, along with songwriter/film producer Buddy G. DeSylva, singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer, and record retailer Glen Wallichs.

Whiteman's band continued its run into the 1930s, but toward the end of the decade their popularity began to wane, and in the early 1940s Whiteman took a job as musical director for the American Broadcasting Co. , a position he kept into the '60s.

Bing Crosby got his start with Whiteman in 1929, in a trio called the Rhythm Boys.

In 1924 he introduced the George Gershwin classic Rhapsody in Blue, which became the band's signature song. Whiteman had the foresight to hire some of the best jazz musicians of the era, including Red Nichols, Frankie Trumbauer, Tommy Dorsey and Bix Beiderbecke.

Paul Whiteman began his musical career as a viola player for the San Francisco Symphony. He enlisted in the Navy during World War I, and his musical abilities resulted in the Navy putting him in charge of his own band. After the war he moved to New York in 1920, where he recorded his first hit, Whispering/The Japanese Sandman. It sold more than two million copies, making Whiteman was an instant star.