23, 1941. Tanner, Ted Weems, and the rest of his orchestra joined the Merchant Marine in 1942. At (and intermittently before) his discharge in 1944 he pursued a solo career. He headlined in various nightclubs and theaters such as Chicago's Oriental and Colosimo's and at the Orpheum in Los Angeles alongside the King Sisters and Maurice Rocco. Besides musical whistling, he also imitated birds for Disney. He continued to perform songs that were associated with Weems, such as “Nola”. Tanner announced he would be fronting a twelve-piece band in September 1946; the band's theme was "Heartaches". He took over the Andy Anderson unit that was based in Atlanta and signed on with the William Morris Agency. His orchestra featured his whistling and vocals by Carol Bridges. However, this proved to be short-lived because of the surprise success of an old recording. The delayed success of "Heartaches" “Heartaches”, composed by Al Hoffman and John Klenner in 1931, was recorded as an unusual half-rumba, half washboard rhythm. In 1933, Victor had assigned the recording of the song to Ted Weems and his Orchestra, and wanted it recorded quickly. Weems and his band had time for only one rehearsal before recording the song. Initially, Weems did not like the song; he decided to omit the lyrics by way of having Tanner whistle instead. While running through the song at rehearsal, someone thought of trying it with a speedier tempo than initially written. It was not a large seller, and the master was filed away. In 1938, Weems was now working with Decca Records and was preparing to make another record. When someone had forgotten to assign a song for the "B" side of the record, Weems and Tanner made another recording of "Heartaches"; the Decca version was not any more successful than the Victor one had been five years earlier. In 1947, a young disk jockey in Charlotte, North Carolina who worked the overnight shift had recently received some older records which he brought to work with him. He chose one at random and put it on the turntable. Shortly after the record had finished, the radio station's telephones began ringing with people asking about the song and requesting to hear it again. By afternoon, the city's music stores were calling the radio station, hoping to learn where they could order copies of "Heartaches". Both Victor and Decca went into their vaults to