Songs of the Times

"What America needs today is a good 5-c- war song. The nation is literally crying for a good, peppy marching song, something with plenty of zip, ginger and fire. Something like Over There, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack Up Your Troubles. . . ."

So said New Jersey's Representative J. Parnell Thomas. Songsters agreed with him. They were grinding out 5-c- tunes with all the old zippo they could muster, but so far, no Over There. Recent 5-c- tunes:

P:Tin Pan Alley turned out a song for the Free French--I'm a Soldier of De Gaulle, by the French-descended radio singer Conrad Thibault (published by Mills Music, Inc.). United Free France (De Gaulle agency in the U.S.) accepted the song as "official." Copies were sent to General de Gaulle in London, to Free French headquarters in Beirut (Syria) and Brazzaville (French Equatorial Africa). Sample English chorus:

I'm a Frenchman who heard a call

"Lift Belle France up from her fall."

So I'll walk or ride or crawl

To a new land for us all.

I'm a soldier of De Gaulle.

P:Most popular song on the juke boxes, networks, sheet-music counters was The White Cliffs of Dover ("There'll be bluebirds over . . .").

P:The much-abused Tchaikovsky piano concerto had disappeared abruptly from best-selling and radio-plug lists, but another classic was in the offing--Grieg Piano Concerto, recorded by Bandleader Freddy Martin, who had started the Tchaikovsky boom.

P:A Variety tabulation of best-sellers of 1941 included The Hut-Sut Song, Elmer's Tune, Joltin' Joe Di Maggio, Booglie Wooglie Piggy.

P:Irving Berlin, court composer to the Government, turned out his fourth and fifth official songs, President's Birthday Ball (for the Infantile Paralysis Fund) and / Paid My Income Tax Today (Treasury Department).* Excerpts from the latter:

I never felt so proud before

To be right there with the millions more

Who paid their income tax today.

I'm squared up with the U.S.A.

You see those bombers in the sky,

Rockefeller helped to build them;

So did I.

Pearl Harbor and anti-Jap songs began creeping up the lists. Citizens of middling age recalled the songs of earlier days, when melodies and sentiments were sweeter. It was doubtful that anyone will ever have the courage to write of 1942, in the vein of 1922: "He kissed her dreamily as from the nearby ballroom came the soft strains of I Paid My Income Tax Today. ..."

*Earlier he wrote Any Bonds Today? (Treasury Department), Arms for the Love of America (War Department), Angels of Mercy (Red Cross).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.