World War II Letters: Top Musical Hits 1942 – 1945 by John Bolinger

Posted on October 5, 2011 by John

   

Music was, as it often is, a comfort and escape for everyone during WWII.  The Dough Boys of WWI had their songs, and with the advent of 78 rpm records and the availability of radios, Americans and Europeans during the 1940’s enjoyed a rich  variety of music, much of which would ever after be associated with that era from 1940- 1945.  BILLBOARD MAGAZINE had one of the most important charts to measure the popularity of musical recordings, and I was able to find some of those on YouTube for the years 1942- 1945, when my dad was in the army.

For 1942, there were several songs that managed to stay # 1 for several weeks at a time.  “I’ve Got a Girl in Kalamazoo” performed by Glenn Miller , Tex Beneke, and the Modernaires I have already posted in a previous post with a YouTube link.  It topped the charts for eight weeks that year.  Then there was “The White Cliffs of Dover,”  which Vera Lynn in England had made popular.  Kay Kyser and his orchestra put it as # 1 on American charts, and here is the link to hear that recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-F1o3B0HE

For 1943 there were four hits that were all at one time or another that year #1 on popularity music charts.  The first of those was “Moonlight Becomes You” by Bing Crosby.  Here is a link to the scene in which Crosby sings the song from the movie ROAD TO MOROCCO with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUmkz95E7mw

The same year the Mills Brothers scored a # 1 hit in their song, “Paper Doll,” which I still enjoy in Woody Allen’s film, RADIO DAYS.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWkVrPcHn9I

Al Dexter’s version of “Pistol Packin’ Mama” reached # 1 for several weeks in ’43 too.  Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters did the song also, but their verson never made it to #1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uESJlJAj7g

A song that touched people deeply in 1943 and made the #1 song for a while was “When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World” by Vaughn Monroe. The lyric speaks of hope for a better time after the long ravages of war and sacrifice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmvkPXYGJBg

1944 brought “Don’t Fence Me In” by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters as a number #1 song, which I think was especially American in its lyric:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5OoiWGygq4

“I’ll Get By” by Harry James and his orchestra was also a number #1 song that year:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIYB8SVvVfg

Finally, for 1944, we find Bing Crosby with another #1 hit in his “Swinging on a Star”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rATftJiWdkw

1945 would see the end of the war, and the top songs that year were varied in their inclusion of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” which must have touched soldiers far away from home the way, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” had done.  It is a song that can easily bring tears when you think of all those men and women so far from home, longing to see the ones they loved and to enjoy the traditions that so deeply imbedded in tradition and family.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXcNfA4qebQ

The Andrews Sisters were often on the charts for #1 songs, and this one, “Rum & Coca Cola” from 1945 was one of Dad’s favorites:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxL2uNr7bk

The Pied Pipers were # 1 for a while with this song called, “Dream,” a perfect theme for all those who were yearning for the war to end and for peace to come again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-qkpa8JFYY&feature=related

Johnny Mercer with Jo Stafford made this 1945 hit, “Candy”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRudiGqyXjQ

Another iconic piece of American music from WWII is this great song that later in the 1973 Bette Midler would do again and bring it back to high popularity.
It was introduced by the Andrews Sisters in the 1941 film BUCK PRIVATES with Abbott and Costello.  Though I don’t think the song ever achieved #1 status on musical charts, it still speaks of the energy and optimism of our soldiers during World War II, so I couldn’t make a list of pop music from that time without including it as one of my personal favorites and one that my parents loved too.

“The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfCFU3Mqww&feature=related

JB

About John

About John John Bolinger was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he attended Ball State University and Purdue University, receiving his BS and MA from those schools. Then he taught English and French for thirty-five years at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana before moving to Colorado, where he resided for ten years before moving to Florida. Besides COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher, John's other books are ALL MY LAZY RIVERS, an Indiana Childhood, and COME ON, FLUFFY, THIS AIN'T NO BALLET, a Novel on Coming of Age, all available on Amazon.com as paperbacks and Kindle books. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes. Another of John's recent books is Mum's the Word: Secrets of a Family. It is the story of his alcoholic father and the family's efforts to deal with or hide the fact. Though a serious treatment of the horrors of alcoholism, the book also entertains in its descriptions of the father during his best times and the humor of the family's attempts to create a façade for the outside world. All John's books are available as paperbacks and Kindle readers on Amazon, and also as paperbacks at Barnes & Noble. John's sixth book is, Growing Old in America: Notes from a Codger was released on June 15, 2014. John’s most recent book is a novel titled Resisting Gravity, A Ghost Story, published the summer of 2018 View all posts by John →
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Protected with IP Blacklist CloudIP Blacklist Cloud

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.