The working title of this film was Orchestra Wife. A 19 Feb 1942 LAEx news item reported that Gregory Ratoff had been set to direct the picture, although HR announced the next day that John Brahm would be the director. According to HR news items, John Brahm began direction of the picture but was replaced by Archie Mayo on 21 Apr 1942. A studio press release noted that Brahm was replaced due to illness. Other HR news items noted that first Maureen O'Hara and then Linda Darnell had been cast in the picture. Contracts in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, located at the UCLA Arts--Special Collections Library, disclose that Harry Davenport was originally signed to play "Dr. Ward." Although a publicity item included Roseanne Murray in the cast, her appearance in the completed picture has not been confirmed.
       Information in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library indicates that an early draft of the film's screenplay was rejected by the PCA because it implied that some of the characters had committed adultery. After PCA officials met with producer William LeBaron in mid-Jun 1942, the story was approved on the condition that there would be no adultery depicted.
       According to studio publicity and Down Beat, actors George Montgomery, Cesar Romero and Jackie Gleason were coached and dubbed by trumpeter Steve Lipkin, pianist Chummy MacGregor and bass fiddler Doc Goldberg, their real-life counterparts in Glenn Miller's band. An 8 Jul 1942 Var news item reported that the song "At Last," composed by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, had originally been recorded by Miller and his orchestra for the 1941 Twentieth Century-Fox film Sun Valley Serenade (see below). Studio records indicate that the Gordon and Warren song "That's Sabotage" was recorded for Orchestra Wives and was included on the soundtrack album, even though it does not appear in the completed picture. Instrumental versions of "You Say The Sweetest Things, Baby" and "The Darktown Strutters' Ball" were also to have been recorded for the film, but were cut, according to the legal file. Gordon and Warren received an Academy Award nomination for their song "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," but lost to Irving Berlin, the composer of "White Christmas." In 1943, a lawsuit filed against Gordon and Warren by Ira B. Arnstein, who claimed that they plagiarized his composition "Kalamazoo," was dismissed, but the disposition of Arnstein's companion suit against Twentieth Century-Fox and its music publisher is not known.
       The film marked the screen debut of Dale Evans. Studio publicity reveals that George Durgom, who plays "Bullets" in the film, was Tommy Dorsey's press agent. In 1948, Twentieth Century-Fox produced You Were Meant for Me (see below), which was a partial, uncredited remake of this picture.
       Orchestra Wives was the second and final film made by famed band leader Glenn Miller, who, in Sep 1942, disbanded his orchestra in order to enter the military. During a 1944 tour entertaining the troops in England, Miller boarded a Paris-bound plane in England, but during the flight, the plane disappeared and Miller was declared missing. In 1985, it was reported that Miller's plane had accidentally been destroyed over the English channel by a British bomber that was unloading its bombs before returning from an uncompleted mission. After his death, Miller's orchestra was led at various times by band members Tex Beneke, Ray McKinley and others. In 1954, Universal Pictures released the biographical film The Glenn Miller Story (see entry), in which James Stewart portrayed the popular band leader.