Spitball Army

In the first several decades when radio was the popular medium, the music played through it was often influenced greatly by the events of the day.  This was especially true during the years of the Second World War.  Whether addressing current events directly (as in “Shhh, It’s a Military Secret”) or suggesting the tone of the country more generally with sentiment (“I Don’t Want to Walk Without You”) or suggestions (“Straighten Up and Fly Right”), the collection of songs below gives a much clearer impression of those times than, say, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” describes the present.

Approximate playing time: 58 minutes.

1. The Andrews Sisters  “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
2. Al Dexter  “Who’s Gonna Love You When I’m Gone”  (1943)
3. Glenn Miller  “(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo”  (1942)
4. Harry Roy  “The Sailor with the Navy Blue Eyes”  (1942)
5. Jerry Stuart  “This is the Army, Mr. Jones”
6. Nat “King” Cole  “Straighten Up and Fly Right”  (1943)
7. Dinah Shore  “Three Little Sisters”  (1942)
8. The Andrews Sisters  “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me)”  (1942)
9. Betty Jane Rhodes  “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You”  (1942)
10. Gene Autry  “At Mail Call Today”  (1945)
11. Helen Forrest with Dick Haymes  “I’ll Buy that Dream”  (1945)
12. The Ink Spots  “Someone’s Rocking My Dreamboat”  (1941)
13. Guy Lombardo  “Bell Bottom Trousers”  (1945)
14. Noel Coward  “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”  (1943)
15. The Sons of the Pioneers  “Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima”  (1945)
16. Spike Jones  “You’re a Sap, Mister Jap”
17. Ella Mae Morse  “Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet”  (1944)
18. Glenn Miller  “Shhh, It’s a Military Secret”
19. The Four Vagabonds  “Rosie the Riveter”
20. The Four Clefs  “V-Day Stomp”  (1945)
21. Jo Stafford  “Long Ago (and Far Away)”  (1944)

In fact, if you compare the popular musical culture between the eras of World War II, the Vietnam War, and the current three wars (Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya), you might find stark differences in how the conflicts are portrayed in song.  In a nutshell, during World War II, there was an overwhelming support for and involvement in the majority of wartime activities (see playlist above); during the Vietnam era, there were many more songs protesting the war than in favor of it (Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” immediately comes to mind, vs. Johnny Wright & Kitty Wells’ resigned but pro-war “Hello Vietnam,” which was used to potent anti-war effect in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket); and, aside from some country & western songs that most likely exist, I know of no popular songs that address the military conflicts of today.  This could make a fun study for some academic somewhere, someday, if it hasn’t already.

In this clip from Full Metal Jacket, new recruits are shorn, as sheep to be led to a potential slaughter, accompanied by the strains of “Hello Vietnam:”