Just when I thought I had pretty much covered all the popular Christmas music from WWII, I discover another song. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much about this song, since NYPL Performing Arts Library, my main source for musical information, is closed because of the pandemic, but I did find out a few interesting tidbits.
I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus was written by Spencer Williams and Lanny Rogers. Williams was an African American, who was born in New Orleans and known for his blues music. Williams suffered from wanderlust, and lived in Europe for a while. He was living in England when he wrote I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus with Lanny Rogers and according to Billboard, it was one of Spencer Williams' most popular songs. I couldn't find anything out about Lanny Rogers.
I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus was first sung by Gracie Fields in France at a troop concert in 1939 and became a big hit for her. In fact, the sheet music sold over 750,000 copies in the month before Christmas. It was also recorded by Vera Lynn in 1939, which you can listen to below.
And here are the lyrics to I'm Sending a Letter to Santa Claus, in case you want to sing along:
I met a little fellow with a letter in his hand,
He asked me if I'd post it in the box for Fairyland.
I slipped it in the mailbox for that little curly head,
It seemed to make him happy very happy as he smiled and said
Well, the Christmas season is upon us, the season of Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards Men, and I thought this would be the perfect song to get us started this year. It isn't a WWII song, but it is one of my favorites. Someday at Christmas was originally released in 1967 by Motown Records on Stevie Wonder's Christmas album by the same name. He was only 17 years old at the time. There was a lot of unrest in the country at that time and it that is reflected in the lyrics of this song - protests against the war in Vietnam and deteriorating race relations amid the fight for equality and civil rights. And even though the song ends on a bit of a pessimistic note, it was still listed as one of Billboards Best Bets for Christmas for the week of December 23, 1967. And sadly, almost 50 years later, it still rings true.
Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth
Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
Someday at Christmas we'll see a Man
No hungry children, no empty hand
One happy morning people will share
Our world where people care
Someday at Christmas there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no men have fears
One shinning moment my heart ran away
From our world today
Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
Someday at Christmas man will not fail
Hate will be gone love will prevail
Someday a new world that we can start
With hope in every heart
(Someday all our dreams will come to be)
(Someday in a world where men are free)
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
Someday at Christmastime
Songwriters BRYAN WELLS, RONALD MILLER, RONALD N. MILLER
In 2015, Stevie Wonder did an Apple commercial with Andra Day, singing a duet of Someday at Christmas while he records it on his Apple laptop. Later, they released it as a single on iTunes. This is the version I have on my iPod because I just love Andra Day's voice. And while I don't believe in promoting products for anyone, I have decided to include the full video of them singing together, mostly because there is nothing that indicates it was a TV ad.
I had to chuckle to myself when I was reading These Dark Wings by John Owen Theobald and the protagonist Anna Cooper, 12, runs into a fellow named Rudolf Hess on the grounds of the Tower of London during WWII. He was a prisoner in the Tower for a few days and I don’t know if he would have been allowed to walk around the grounds or not, but it was very well guarded, so perhaps he could. But who is Rudolf Hess and why was he in the Tower, in the first place?
Rudolf Hess was an old and loyal friend of Adolf Hitler’s and an original member of the Nazi Party, joining in 1920. After the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Germany, in which the Nazis attempted to take over the Bavarian government, both Hitler and Hess were sent to jail. It was while in prison that Hitler began Mein Kampf. Hitler ranted and Hess wrote it all down.
Naturally, when Hitler seized control of Germany in 1933, he rewarded his old pal Hess by making him the Deputy Führer, the third most powerful position in Nazi Germany, placing him right behind Hitler and Hermann Göring.
So it was a little surprising when Hess took it into his head to climb aboard a German Messerschmitt plane belonging to the Luftwaffe all by himself on the night of May 10, 1941 and fly to Scotland. The weather was bad as Hess neared Scotland and he was forced to parachute out of his plane. Both Hess and the plane crash landed in farmer David McLean's field. Hess had hoped to meet with the Duke of Hamilton for the purpose of instituting peace talks, but instead, he soon found himself in a farmhouse kitchen having a cup of tea with the farmer’s wife before being arrested. Hess’s problem was that no one in Germany or Great Britain knew anything about his so-called peace mission and in fact, to this day, it is still wondered at.
Rudolf Hess and Farmer David McLean
Having never met with the Duke of Hamilton, Hess was taken into custody and yes, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered him to be taken to the Tower of London. He was only there for a short time, but Hess has the distinction of being the very last state prisoner ever held in the Tower. He was later transferred to a fortified mansion in Surrey until after the war, when he was sent back to Germany. There, he was tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg, receiving a life sentence. He was sent to Spandau Prison, where he remained until his death in 1987 at age 93.
It didn’t take long for Hess’s arrival in Scotland to become fodder for British humor, after all, the British were fascinated with Hess’s flight into enemy territory. And Arthur Askey, a well-known actor/comedian and a popular personality on BBC radio during the war, was just the person to capture the whole Hess incident with his perfect comedic timing. In a song written by Harold Pucell, Askey recorded a tune originally called "It's Really Nice to See You, Mr. Hess" but later changed to "Thanks for Dropping In, Mr. Hess" for His Master’s Voice on their bargain BD label, just in time for the record company’s July 1941 releases. Unfortunately, the British War Office wasn’t quite as amused as everyone else and demanded that the song be banned, afraid that it might be detrimental to morale of those serving in the Armed Forces.
So, it wasn’t until after the war that that “Thanks for Dropping in, Mr. Hess” surfaced again, in various collections of wartime songs. I discovered it when I was putting together a playlist of humorous songs that were popular during WWII (and there were a lot). I have never found sheet music for it, nor have I found the lyrics anywhere. I copied the lyrics down while listening to the song to share with you (so if I'm wrong about any, please let me knew):
Welcome, little stranger, falling from the sky
Falling like the raindrops or the dew.
Are you out of danger? do you realize
Just what sort of welcome’s waiting you?
Well, thanks for dropping in, Mr. Hess,
We’ve told your friends to note your new address.
They’ve heard you got her safety in Berlin and in Rome,
So put away your parachute and make yourself at home.
Thanks for dropping in, Mr. Hess,
Forgive the small announcement in the press.
Had you told us you were coming and informed us where you’d land,
We would certainly had a big reception nicely planned
With a carpet and some streamers and Jack Hylton and his band.*
Thanks for dropping in, thanks for popping in, what nice surprise, Mr. Hess.
Nice and unexpected, just the way we like,
Strolling in as friendly as can be.
Soon we’ll have ol’ Adolf, jumping off his bike, calling in to have a cup of tea.
Thanks for dropping in, Mr. Hess,
We trust you haven’t left behind a mess.
Perhaps you thought that someone there had taken you for a ride,
Perhaps you thought it safer here than on the other side.
Thanks for dropping in, Mr. Hess,
Don’t tell us why you came, we’d like to guess.
Perhaps you’ve such a lot to tell us that you thought we’d like to know,
Perhaps you heard that bonny Scotland was a charming place to go.
Perhaps you even thought George Black might sign you up to do a show.**
Thanks for dropping in, thanks for popping in, what a nice surprise, Mr Hess.
The not terribly Christmasy
original 1944 sheet music
On November 28, 1944, MGM released a movie starring Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor and Tom Drake, among others. The movie, Meet Me in St. Louis, takes place in 1903, a year before the St. Louis World's Fair. The Smith family has just learned that they will be moving from St. Louis to New York City. Esther, 17 and played by Judy Garland, have fallen for the boy next door and is very unhappy about the move. During Christmas, Tootie, her much younger sister played by Margaret O'Brien, is also upset about leaving family behind and is also afraid Santa won't be able to find her because of the move. Esther sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to try and comfort her sister as much as herself.
When the song was first written in 1944 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine for the movie, some of the lyrics were very not quite as heartwarming as the ones that we are most familiar with now, so they were rewritten. As you can see, there is quite a difference in meaning and sentiment:
Why the change? Well, the world was still at war and, according to *Ace Collins, Judy Garland had spent a lot of time entertaining the troops during the past three years as well as visiting, talking and reading their fan mail. She had a pretty good idea that a depressing song wasn't what was wanted or needed by these courageous soldiers and so, with support from the movie's director (and her future husband), Vincent Minnelli, she sent the song back to Martin and Blaine and asked for a rewrite. The new version was certainly more hopeful than the original.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"was released as a single in time for Christmas 1944, and Collins writes, when Judy Garland "sang in to soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen, there wasn't a dry eye in the place."
The song only spent one week on Billboard's charts in 1944. With its message of hope for a future, it was extremely popular with troops, particularly those still serving overseas. It seems that it wasn't until later that "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" became a big hit with the general public.
In 1957, Frank Sinatra recorded it for an album called A Jolly Christmas. Thinking the line "Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow" wasn't very jolly, he asked Martin to revise that lyric and so it became "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough," which may the the lyric you are most familiar with, although both are still recorded by singers today.
Of the approximately 150 different versions that have been recorded since 1944, all by different recording artists, I think my favorites are the ones by Rosemary Clooney (1976) and Diana Krall (2001).
Do you have a favorite version of this beloved Christmas song?
*Collins, Ace. Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001.
In honor of the return of my very favorite variety of apple, the *Honey Crisp, returning to produce shelves now, I have had the song "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" running through my head now for the past two weeks and I thought it would be interesting to explore the song's WWII roots.
In the spring of 1942, things were not going well for the United States, now at war in Europe and the Pacific. In fact, things were really looking bad in the Pacific, where the US was losing in the Philippines and would end up surrendering in Bataan and in Corregidor to the Japanese. Yet, even as the US was losing the war in those early days, Americans were still wanting and listening to war-related music, but mostly of the novelty or sentimental variety and if only to boost morale.
"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" proved to be a real favorite during those dark days, but it was not originally a war-relate song. It was written in 1939, with music and the lyrics by Sam H. Stept, Lew Brown and Charles Tobias and was called "Anywhere the Bluebird Goes," but the name was changed when it was used in a play called Yokel Boy starring Judy Canova. According the Playbill, Yokel Boy opened July 6, 1939 and closed January 6, 1940, after only 208 performances.
But the song's popularity increased after the US entered the war. In early 1942, it had been recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, and with vocals by Beneke, Marion Hutton (older sister of Betty Hutton), and the Modernaires. Miller's version of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" was very popular and stayed on Billboard's charts for 13 weeks in 1942.
Billboard January 2, 1943 pg 27
In May 1943, the movie Private Buckaroo, a musical comedy about army recruits after they are finished with basic training, was released. In it, the Andrews Sisters travel around the US, performing at USO dances in uniform accompanied by Henry James and his Orchestra. One of their most popular songs in the film was "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." The song was a perfect fit, since it is about a young soldier who is off to war and is basically asking his sweetheart to stay true to him while he is off fighting, something that was happening every day in real life.
"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" proved to be a very big hit for the Andrews Sister, and though not as big as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", it does have that distinctive swing style Maxine, LaVerne and Patty Andrews were so well known for, as you can see in this clip from the movie:
In his 1985 Pulitzer Prize winning oral history of World War II, The Good War, author Studs Turkel interviewed Maxine Andrews about the wartime experiences of Andrews Sisters. This is what she said about "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree":
"I remember we sang it up in Seattle when a whole shipload of troops went out. We stood there on the deck and all the young men up there waving and yelling and screaming. As we sang "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," all the mothers and sisters and sweethearts sang with us as the ship went off. It was wonderful. The songs were romantic. It was a feeling of - not futility, It was like everybody in the United States held on to each other's hands."
"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" was so popular that during 1942, three different versions were recorded and all ended up on the pop charts - Glenn Miller's The Andrews Sisters, and Kay Kyser and his band.
*The Honey Crisp is the only apple that should be refrigerated otherwise it gets mealy real quick.
In WWI popular music had the power to bind people together on the face a common enemy, to buck them up in the face of defeat, and to encourage them to be strong, loyal, and brave, even when they didn't much feel that way. Some of the more popular songs were patriotic, but the best loved ones simply were those that appealed to the heart.
In October 1940, two American songwriters from New York, composer Walter Kent and lyricist Nat Burton, penned a song called They'll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover. The song was originally written with a war-torn, war-weary Britain in mind, as is evident in the first two verses:
I'll never forget the people I met Braving those angry skies I remember well as the shadows fell The light of hope in their eyes And though I'm far away I still can hear them say Bombs up… But when the dawn comes up (refrain) They'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover Tomorrow Just you wait and see
It was a favorite in Britain right from the start. And why wouldn't it be? The white cliffs of Dover had always been a welcome home symbol to weary travelers crossing the English Channel, but now that there was a war on, it became an icon, especially for those pilots in the RAF. Once the United States entered the war, The White Cliffs of Dover began to appeal to Americans as much as it did to the British
with its lyrical images of hope and peace, although it was usually recorded in the US without the original first 8 lines.
The White Cliffs of Dover was first recorded by Glenn Miller and his orchestra in 1941. Miller's version was the first war related song to show up on the pop charts, coming in at 10th place on Billboard's Popularity Chart for the week ending December 26, 1941, just 19 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
By the week ending January 2, 1942, Miller's version was replaced by Kay Kyser and his orchestra, also in 10th place, although it was in 2nd place on the Your Hit Parade chart as of January 3, 1942. The song stayed on the top 10 charts for a number of months, with the weekly favorite swinging between Miller and Kyser.
Singer Kate Smith also recorded The White Cliffs of Dover early on, but her version didn't show up on the national charts until the week ending February 7, 1942, when she placed in 9th place to Miller's 10th place. Other recordings were made by Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, Bebe Daniels, Rose Marie, and Tommy Tucker, all with varying popularity.
In Britain, a 23 year old singer from London named Vera Lynn also recorded The White Cliffs of Dover. It was immensely popular, giving Lynn her first commercial success, although she is probably more well known for her iconic recording of We'll Meet Again in 1942. The version I have included above is the one by Vera Lynn. I chose that because this in the one I heard growing up when my Welsh father was waxing nostalgic for his homeland years after the war ended. It is also the version that still occasionally runs through my head.
The White Cliffs of Dover remained a favorite all through the war, frequently played on the radio and was one of the most requested by the troops abroad. Of course, the song isn't without some irony, since the bluebird is an American bird, and not found in the British Isles, so it was unlikely that anyone would ever see bluebirds flying over the white cliffs of Dover heralding peace. Luckily for us, peace did come eventually, anyway.
The white cliffs of Dover may have been a icon of home for British and American pilots, but they were also a beacon for Luftwaffe pilots. Sadly, the cliffs were bombed during the war and badly damaged, though they are still pretty incredible.
Because of copyright laws, music can't be included, but if you click this
you can listen to the original song on YouTube
If White Christmas was sentimental chart topping holiday song of 1942, you might expect that I'll Be Home for Christmas would have filled that same slot when it came out in 1943. After all, it was written specifically as a wartime Christmas song. 1943 was the third Christmas of the war for America, and the fifth for the other Allied and Axis countries. By now, people were feeling the full impact of the war as more and more telegrams arrived at more and more front doors and blue stars on service flags* hanging in windows were changed to gold stars and that may have played a part in the songs popularity.
The lyrics to I'll Be Home for Christmas were written in 1942 by James "Kim" Gannon. According to Ace Collins, Gannon was inspired by what he saw around him in Brooklyn:
The streets were decorated, trees were sold on corner lots, and Santas still rang their bells and smiled at children, but the war had cast a pall over the holiday. It was hard to think of presents or peace on earth...To make it all worse, no one was completely sure that the United States and its allies could even win the war. (pg 92)
When he had finished, he brought the song to Walter Kent, who has already had success with his hit song "White Cliffs of Dover"and it was set to music. Bing Crosby recorded I'll Be Home for Christmas on October 4, 1943 and it was released shortly after that.
Gannon would have seemed to have captured the desires of those on the home front as well as those on the front lines when he when penned the first 11 lines of I'll Be Home for Christmas but then came the melancholy reality in the last line: "But only in my dreams." Yet, this seemingly perfect wartime Christmas song never was the hit that White Christmas became, despite Crosby's lilting baritone. For the most part, it occupied third place on Billboard's charts, and doesn't seem to have made it way to The Hit Parade's top weekly countdown.
I'll Be Home for Christmas may not have been a Number 1 hit at home, but, at Christmas USO shows on both fronts, it was the most requested song by those stationed overseas during the war. This isn't surprising - the lyrics read like a letter being written by a soldier to his family back home:
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.
After the war, I'll Be Home for Christmas was heard much anymore, not until 1965. Since then, though it still lags behind White Christmas in overall popularity, it has continued to be recorded by various artists.
The copyright for I'll Be Home for Christmas was granted to Gannon and Kent, but if you look closely at the original sheet music, you can see a third name - Buck Ram. There was some controversy over the original song's ownership and if you are interested, you can find it nicely explained over at Steyn Online.
*A service flag with one or more blue stars meant that someone in that household was serving in the Armed Forces.
A service flag with one or more gold stars meant that someone in that household had been killed in action.
Collins, Ace. Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001.
Because of copyright laws, music can't be included, but if you click this you can listen to the original song on YouTube
Back on April 20, 1935, a radio program called Your Hit Parade debuted on Saturday nights. Each week, the program would play the 15 most popular songs of that week, performed by live artists, though not the person who originally recorded the songs. Regardless, it didn't take long before Your Hit Parade was itself a hit.
It shouldn't be surprising that during WWII, Your Hit Parade was an very important part of life, not only on the home front, but it was also head overseas and on the front lines thanks to Armed Forces Radio Service.
In Britain, the BBC was also broadcast popular music to their forces fighting in Europe and to the war-torn home front. Even the Germans recognized the morale building value of shared music and broadcast their own version of The Hit Parade in a weekly program called the Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht, also heard at home and on the front lines.
One of the most popular songs of the war was actually one that wasn't really considered really great by the composer, Irving Berlin, and the original singer, Bing Crosby. White Christmas was originally just another song on a movie sound track, written sometime between 1940-1941, and it was supposed to be ironic. It was first introduced on the radio on Christmas Eve 1941 by Bing Crosby and later released on July 30, 1942. At first, White Christmas didn't go anywhere, but by October 1942, thanks to radio plugs, it went to first place on The Hit Parade's weekly countdown and stayed there for 10 weeks, and was in first place on Billboard's charts for 11 weeks.
White Christmas on Billboard's charts October 1942 and December 1942
(click to enlarge)
White Christmas is a simple song, but despite the opening words, it became a very popular war song because it appealed to people emotions with it melancholy nostalgia for the ideal long ago Christmas that, in reality, most people never experienced. The opening lines, which make fun of Hollywood, are sometimes still recorded but not often. In fact, Berlin had these cut from all sheet music after seeing how popular the song became in 1942:
The sun is shining.
The grass is green.
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hill, L.A.
But it's December the twenty-fourth,
And I'm longing to be up north.
In 1943, White Christmas won the Academy Award for Best Song. The movie it was written for, Holiday Inn, was not about the war at all, but when it was remade in 1954 and called, not surprisingly, White Christmas, it was about two former Army buddies trying to help out their former General with his so-far-not-too-successful Vermont hotel. I have to admit, I like White Christmas more than Holiday Inn, but I think that has more to do with Rosemary Clooney being in it than anything else. Although, I do like Fred Astaire's tap dancing in Holiday Inn.
Because the original recording of White Christmas was damaged, the Bing Crosby version that is most often heard now is a 1947 recording. To date, it has sold over 50 million copies and, according to Wikipedia, there are more than 500 different recorded versions of it.
Original 1942 White Christmas sheet music,
complete with Buy War Bonds stamp
Your Hit Parade remained a popular radio show all through the 1940 and on July 10, 1950 became a weekly television show using the same countdown format.
