"Moonlight Serenade" is an American popular song with original music by Glenn Miller and subsequent lyrics by Mitchell Parish. It was originally named "Now I Lay Me Down To Weep." When Miller recorded "Sunrise Serenade" in 1939, he placed this song on the back. It was an immediate phenomenon as an instrumental arrangement and was adopted as Miller's signature tune.
The most striking part of the piece was its use of clarinet-led saxophone section, which is widely considered the classic Glenn Miller style. The first eight bars of the melody follow the form of the 12-bar blues. The song is a premier example of the American big-band sound from the mid-twentieth century.
