Charles Agnew

Agnew was raised in New Jersey.[2] Agnew's band was primarily based in the Chicago area, where he was often engaged at the Aragon Ballroom,[2] the Edgewater Hotel (with Irene Taylor on vocals)[3] and the Stephens Hotel.[4] With co-composers Charles Newman and Audree Collins, he wrote a song called "Slow but Steady" which was copyright in 1931.[5] He appeared, alongside the Paul Whiteman and Gus Edwards orchestras, at the "Marathon Opera" which benefitted the Chicago Herald and Examiner Milk Fund.[6] Through the 1930s his orchestra was heard nationally in the United States on the NBC Radio network.[7][8][9] On July 25, 1933, he recorded several songs for Columbia Records, the most popular of which was "Don't Blame Me."[4] The New Yorker magazine reviewed this recording as "richly played."[10] Represented by the Musical Corporation of America, he spent the summer of 1936 playing at the Colonial Hotel in Indiana, where featured vocalists were Lon Saxon and Emrie Ann Lincoln.[11] He continued to lead his dance band into the 1940s.[12] During World War II he actively toured the country, playing for the benefit of enlisted personnel[2] and continuing his hotel engagements.[13] While many big band leaders disbanded, Agnew kept his unit together until the late 1950s. At that point he downsized to a smaller group, until retiring about 1968.[2]

Agnew could play many different instruments, from disparate classifications.[2] He was receiving treatment for cancer when he died on October 25, 1978, in Waukegan, Illinois.[2]