When Herb Jeffries walked into the RCA Victor Studio in Chicago on December 28th, 1940 for a Duke Ellington recording session, he had no idea that his future was predestined. Ellington had called him in at the last minute to record one song, a tune called "Flamingo" (written by Ted Grouya & Edmund Anderson). Herb had never sang or even heard the song before, yet he felt such a personal relationship with the lyrics and melody that he recorded it in one take.

   "Flamingo" did not impress Leonard Joy, the RCA Victor executive at the time. However, the recording was finally released in June, 1941, and became an immediate radio and juke box hit! Herb had, by then, left the Ellington band and gone off to do his bit for Uncle Sam in WWII. But the song catapulted Herb into the highest echelon of popular singers. His three subsequent recordings of "Flamingo" have sold over 14-million copies... and still counting.