{"product_id":"the-songs-that-fought-the-war-popular-music-and-the-home-front-19391945","title":"The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front  1939-1945","description":"\u003cp\u003ePoet Rod McKuen once observed that 19391945 was a terrible time for the world  but it was a glorious time for songs and fighter pilots. Anyone who was alive during World War II remembers with fondness the music of the period. Songs such as Ill Be Seeing You  Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy  Its Been A Long  Long Time  and Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition became standards that are still around today. But whats most amazing about the popular songs of the war years is just how many there were. World War II was one of the most fertile periods of American popular songwriting; it was also the heyday of such big bands as those of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey  Glenn Miller  Benny Goodman  and Harry James  and of vocalists such as Bing Crosby  Frank Sinatra  Dinah Shore  Kitty Kallen  and  of course  the Andrews Sisters. This outpouring of music included romantic ballads  rhythm numbers  dance tunes  and novelty songs  and the war itself occasioned the writing  publishing  recording  and performance of thousands of war-inspired songs. Professionals wrote virtually all of the wartime songs we still sing today  but thousands of other numbers were written by inspired (or not-so-inspired) amateurs: men  women  and even children eager to express their patriotism through lyric and melody. Although a central part of home front popular culture during World War II  these war-related and war-inspired songs had never been systematically analyzed or interpreted. In The Songs That Fought The War  John Bush Jones examines hundreds of these tunes in the context of the times. He begins with a look at the contemporary music industry and the astonishing array of songwriters (including amateurs) prior to Pearl Harbor and during the war. Then he turns to songs written and popularized before Pearl Harbor  including tunes that touted isolationism and patriotism in the late 1930s  songs written by Americans about the European allies  and songs from England that became popular in the United States. PostPearl Harbor tunes included songs about the draft  enlistment  army life  national pride  and a few about wartime personalities such as FDR and MacArthur. Humorous songs about shortages  rationing  and Victory Gardens and sentimental ballads about boys abroad missing girls back home (and vice versa) expressed home front anxieties and efforts  not least of which was the German hit among both the Allies and the Axis  Lili Marlene.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44952010752053,"sku":"ByrdShop_1584654430","price":60.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781584654438.jpg?v=1770148283","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-songs-that-fought-the-war-popular-music-and-the-home-front-19391945","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}