Music 1941: Tin Pan Alley Creates War Songs

Of thee I sing, Baby

Tin Pan Alley has been hard at it since the U.S. entered the war, patching together patriotic songs. First number to hit the radio networks was sung by Eddie Cantor and Dinah Shore. Title: We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again.

¶ Oops-sorry note: The authors called it The Japs Won’t Have a Chinaman’s Chance. But that seemed disrespectful to the Chinese. Last week it became The Japs Won’t Have a Ghost of a Chance.

¶ B.M.I, accepted for publication They Started Something (But We’re Gonna End It!), by Robert Sour, Don McCray and Ernest Gold. Some of 260 titles submitted in three days: Let’s Take a Rap at the Japs, Taps for the Japs, Those Nasty Nasty Nazis.

¶ Rhyme of the week: To Be Specific, It’s Our Pacific.