Jazz Remembered
Ernie Felice
by Jari Salo
A particular feature in the history of 'Accordion Jazz' has been its popularity in Finland - an article about jazz accordionist Art Van Damme is here). Ernie Felice was an American jazz accordion player who became a member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Ernie learned to play the accordion as a child in the 1920s in San José, California and by the 1930s he was playing and touring with The Four Sharps, a band from San Francisco. After the War, he joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra before signing up his Quartet with Capitol Records in 1947. The Quartet featured Ernie on accordion and vocals, Dick Anderson (clarinet), Chick Parnell (bass) and Dick Fisher (guitar). Then after 1950 he seems to have disappeared from the scene.
Jari Salo in Finland has been trying to find out what happened and sent us this article. (Jari sent it to us in Finnish, so we apologise if things are lost in the translation): "People will probably remember Ernie Felice from his time with Benny Goodman in 1947, but he disappeared at the end of 1950. Had he died or what happened?"
Ernie Felice with Benny Goodman
"When I started my investigation I found a reference to Ernie being related to a woman's fiancé so I emailed her - there was no reply. Then in 2009 I discovered a clip on YouTube from a film where Ernie had his own show The Ernie Felice Show which was broadcast in Los Angeles around 1959." (Here is the video with Ernie singing and swinging Blue Skies)."
"I investigated the video and discovered that Ernie had a son, Dan Felice. Contacting Dan, I learned that Ernie had left the music business because he did not like the direction in which things were going with the emergence of pop, rock and other mainstream music. He quit playing in one fell swoop. Dan subsequently sent me digital copies of all Ernie's music. A regular visitor on Ernie's TV program was Sue Raney who has told me that Ernie was a nice man and that the programmes were fun to make. I have also found out that Les Paul and Ernie set up their own label - F&M Records - and their first release was (No More Cryin' - a Country Music number with Mary Ford, Ernie and Les Paul playing in the background. Ernie sings I Love You Dearly on the B side."
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"I cannot understand why Ernie is not more widely acclaimed. His band was tight and could play just about anything. He was a real singer, a crooner, a baritone who swung when given a band behind him. In my opinion he is one of the most entertaining musicians and it would be good to see a record company put out a collection of his work."
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Here they are from a broadcast playing I Can't Give You Anything But Love:
"Ernie, at the age of 88, was honoured at the Grammy Museum in October 2010 and there is a video of the event with Ernie talking about his career:"
"I am regularly in touch with Dan Felice and my daughter visited him in the United States in 2010. Dan has subsequently put up a short video about his father called 'Who Is Ernie Felice?' that starts with the Blue Skies clip and then moves on to others":
"Ernie also appears in the 20th Century Fox movie With A Song In My Heart, starring Susan Hayward, which is the movie about the music career of Jane Froman":
In January 2012, Jari Salo told us that there was a website for Ernie Felice at www.erniefelice.com where there were extensive details, photographs and music samples for Ernie but this no longer seems to be available.
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Ernie Felice passed away on the 13th September 2015.
In 2025 Gaston Hinostroza wrote to us asking: "I read your post about Ernie Felice. I Immediately was excited to hear more and just as immediately disappointed to find I could not find any recordings of him. Can you point me to some Benny Goodman records he was on or other groups he recorded with ?"
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Jari Salo had made this point earlier. There appear to be a number of recordings available through the Discogs site - here is one. A 3 CD compilation of Ernie's music is mentioned online but as far as I can see is not currently available. A single was released in 1958 of Ernie and the Dennis Farnon Orchestra with the Burt Bacharach / Hal David song Hot Spell that is also available on the Discogs site, although this has limited jazz content.If anyone is aware of other recordings, please let us know. There is a tribute page to Ernie on Facebook here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2026.1