1941 in Popular Song

1941 was a pretty amazing year for popular music. The Big Band sound had gotten very polished and silky at this point, with Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Jimmy Dorsey having banner years. The British are at war now, and the U.S. about to be, and this theme shows up in numerous songs this year. 

Let's start there. The Andrews Sisters were really hitting their stride with Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B. Though the States were not yet in the war the first peacetime draft had already been enacted in late 1940, and their song, "I'll Be with You in Appleblossom Time" anticipated the long separation of lovers that the war would bring. 

Keeping with the theme, Kay Kyser did Lights Out 'til Reveille, Cliff Bruner gave us Draft Board Blues, 

Britain of course was already in the thick of it. But they had Vera Lynn! When They Sound the Last All Clear & Smilin' Through.

Switching to the Country & Western music from 1941, Bob Wills was on the top of his game: Take Me Back to Tulsa. The great Ernest Tubbs was "Walkin' the Floor Over You."

And on the "Western" side of things, the Sons of the Pioneers were longing for Cool Water.

As for the Blues, the recordings being made in this period were nothing less than amazing. They feel less contrived than much of the popular music of the period. In 1941 Big Bill Broonzy gave us Key to the Highway. Lil Green sang Why Don't You Do Right? (preceding the justly famous Peggy Lee version by several years).

It was such a great period for Blues music, I don't want to miss Jay McShann's rollicking Vine Street Blues (anticipating early Rock and Roll music by about 15 years). Or Big Maceo Merriwether's Worried Life Blues. And the Amazing Memphis Minnie singing the suggestive Me and My Chauffeur (and again the sound of early Rock and Roll in the midst of this).

Okay, but what about the true popular music of the day. That would be Big Band, my friend, and this is its heyday. 1941 produced some of my favorite tunes:

• Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo (vocals by the Modernaires)
• Benny Goodman's There'll Be Some Changes Made (vocals by Louise Bogin)
• Artie Shaw's My Mama Done Told Me (vocals by "Hot Lips" Page!)

There were numerous hits about going to Harlem in those days. Glen Miller's I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem was one, and Gene Krupa's "Let Me Off Uptown" another (with vocals by a young Anita O'Day, and Roy Eldridge on trumpet).

But the greatest of these songs about going to Harlem, and one of the great jazz numbers of all time, is Duke Ellington's Take the A-Train (no lyrics yet on this one, they would come in '42, when the Delta Rhythm Boys release their version).

But the song of the year has to be Billie Holiday's amazing God Bless the Child. This version sounds like it was recorded in a nightclub after hours, with the piano sounding a little distant. I'm guessing it was recorded live in the studio, but in any case it's a highpoint in the history of recorded music.

Of course there are many modern versions of this song to choose from, anything from Blood Sweat and Tears to Tony Bennett. But I always like Annie Lennox.