Every year Down Beat, jazzmen's magazine, polls the trade for its opinions, which are downright. This year's opinions, published last week:
>Best swing band: Benny Goodman, with 2.130 votes to Duke Ellington's 1,841.
> Best sweet: Glenn Miller, nosing out Tommy Dorsey, 2,605 to 2,427.
> Favorite soloist: Clarinetist Goodman.
Next: Trumpeter Harry James, Clarinetist Artie Shaw.
> Best small combination: Goodman's sextet.
> "King of Corn": Guy Lombardo.
> Best vocalists: Bing Crosby, Helen O'Connell. Blonde, dimpled Singer O'Connell, 20, called "Button-Nose" by the boys in Jimmy Dorsey's band, also took first place in polls...
