Production of goods was not the only thing that was controlled by the government during the war. The Office of War Information (OWI) was created in June 1942 to act as the official government war censor. Its major purpose was to regulate the media to sell the war to citizens. It gathered data and controlled release of news. It engaged the press, radio, and film industries in informational campaigns. It banned publications of advertisements or photographs that showed dead Americans because it was thought that would demoralize the public. However, in 1943, worried that Americans had become too confident, the OWI allowed Newsweek to published pictures of wounded American service men.
The OWI also attempted to control the war time music written and played. The Music War Committee (MWC), which was part of the OWI and was headed by Oscar Hammerstein, the famous Broadway songwriter, was founded to commission or write “the great all-purpose war song”. It sponsored contests to achieve its objective. (Jones, p.129) The OWI also tried to limit the amount of times “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” was played on the radio to “once every four hours”, so that it would not become stale and loose its patriotic effect. (Jones, p. 157)
“Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”, performed by Kay Kyser and his band (https://youtu.be/LJfJPxLntZU) and written by Frank Loesser (1942), was based on a legendary, but inaccurate, tale of a comment supposedly made by a U.S. Navy Chaplain, who took over a gun station on a ship for a fallen sailor. (Smith, p. 15-16) The song sold 2 ½ million records and 750,000 pieces of sheet music (Jones, p.155) It rivaled “White Christmas” in popularity. (Jones, p. 156)
Down went the gunner, a bullet was his fate
Down went the gunner, and then the gunner’s mate
Up jumped the sky pilot, gave the boys a look
And manned the gun himself as he laid aside The Book, shoutingPraise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay freePraise the Lord and swing into position
Can’t afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we’re all between perdition
And the deep blue seaYes the sky pilot said it
Ya gotta give him credit
For a son of a gun of a gunner was he shoutingPraise the Lord, we’re on a mighty mission
All aboard, we ain’t a-goin’ fishin’
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay freePraise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord (Praise the Lord) and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay freePraise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we’ll all stay free
The war years were a continuation of the years of the “big band” sounds that rose in popularity during the Great Depression. Below is a bulleted list of the most popular songs during World War II. Note that the music on this list provides a sense of the ‘mood’ in America during this war; the songs are not about World War II combat experiences but about social history in wartime.
- “There is a Blue Star Shinning Bright”, (sung by Red Foley, written by Foy, Revencroft, Bastow & Howard) (https://youtu.be/QttwVz0FrOo) During the war, people and businesses displayed banners with blue stars in their windows to indicate that a family member or worker was serving in the armed forces;
- “There’s a Gold Star in Her Window”, sung by Tex Ritter (https://youtu.be/U5pfw6TBUBs) , a banner with a gold star hung in the window of the family home of a soldier who had died in the war; the song reflects a mother’s sorrow at the loss of a soldier son);
- “When the Lights go on Again (All over the World)”, recorded by Vaughn Monroe (https://youtu.be/JD8sEFpbk-w) , written by Seiler, Marcus, and Benjamin (1942), the song looks forward to the end of the war, to a time when soldiers and sailors will return to their homes and the blissful world of peacetime, with no need for blackouts, and no more bombs falling from the sky (Smith , p.23);
- “(There’ll be Blue Birds over) The White Cliffs of Dover”, popularized by Kate Smith (https://youtu.be/ZDaZgUjoniY), also by Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller (and many more), written by Nat Burton and Walter Kent (1941), the song is a tribute to the fortitude of the English and the hope for restored tranquility when the war ends; it was adopted by the Americans after Pearl Harbor (Jones, p. 88); and,
- “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company C)”, sung by The Andrews Sisters (https://youtu.be/qafnJ6mRbgk) from the 1941 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello film, “Buck Privates”.