1945 Music – Pop Standards and Artists

1945 Pop Standards and Artists

Perry Como
If I Loved You
The Cast of Carousel
Soliloquy
Frank Sinatra
You’ll Never Work Alone

Carousel was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s second collaboration after Oklahoma!. The trick here was to find an idea for a musical that would have the same or a larger impact than Oklahoma!, and they found it. The Musical is based on a play by Ferenc Molnar’, Liliom”. Molnar’s play is set in Budapest the biggest change that the musical team made was to move the play from its original setting to the coastline of Maine. The rest of the story is basically the same except that Rodger’s and Hammerstein made the ending a bit more hopeful.

If I Loved You is a conversation between a man and woman in this case Billy and Julie. Both are describing what they would do if they loved the other person, and denying the feeling they obviously have for each other. The song tells a lot about each of the characters of the individual and helps establish much of the story.

Soliloquy is a song sung by the male lead, Billy Bigelow. Billy is a carnival barker for a Carousel who meets Julie Jordan a mill worker. They marry, although it is not the best of matches. Billy is a bit of a scoundrel and drinks a bit too much. He’s not the most reliable of men either. Julie is the exact opposite. They begin their life together and Julie gets pregnant. Soliloquy is Billy’s reaction to Julie’s pregnancy. The song first tells of his excitement about having a boy, a fact he is not sure of, it then goes into what would happen if he had a…girl. He asks, “what would he do with her?” And what would he do with her? By the end of the song, Billy vows to do whatever he has to raise the girl well. Billy and Julie do indeed have a girl, but he is not around to raise her.

The interesting thing about Soliloquy is that was written as a cover song. There was a lengthy scene change in the play, the song was written to cover this time and was sung in front of a closed curtain. In the film, the song is sung while Billy wonders around the Maine Coastline.

You’ll Never Walk Alone one of the most beautiful of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s compositions, it can really only be compared to Climb Every Mountain which the team would write about 15 years later for The Sound Of Music. The songs are really both about standing with faith in times of great trouble. You’ll Never walk Alone is written as a song of comfort for Julie after Billy is killed while attempting a robbery. Her cousin Letty sings this to tell her she will never be alone. The song is used quite often as a hymn in almost all denominations of Christianity.

Dick Haymes
It Might as Well Be Spring

Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s hit OKLAHOMA did not go unnoticed by Hollywood. They tempted the team to go to California to write a score for a musical. The film was called State Fair. The story told of the Frake family’s yearly trip to the Iowa State Fair. Each of the members is preoccupied with their own hopes of finding something special at that year’s fair. The mother wants to win the prize for the best mincemeat. This is helped by her husband secretly adding a large amount of brandy to the final product. Mrs. Frake then comes along and adds even more. Abel Frake, the dad, wants to win the prize for the best pig. The son Wayne wants to get even if with a barker who he feels cheated him at the previous years fair. And Margie has a decision to make. She has to decide if she will marry the boy who she isn’t sure she loves. She wants more than what he is. Her feelings are expressed in the song “It Might as Well Be Spring.”

Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters
Ac – cent – tchu – ate The Positive
Written in 1944 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer the song is essentially a sermon set to music using the examples of old testament heroes like Noah and Jonah focusing on the positive of the things when life throws hard situations at us. C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his letters; “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life-the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real-life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination. “
-from a letter to Arthur Greeves, 20 December 1943

The Andrew Sisters
Rum and Coca Cola
Written as a calypso, it was composed by Lord Invader and Lionel Belasco. It, however, was not copyrighted, by the composers in The United States, The copyright was done by an entertainer and future co-star of the Dick Van Dyke Show, Morey Amsterdam. When the Andrews Sisters made their recording, the single spent ten weeks on top of The Billboard Charts.

Harry James
It’s Been A Long Long Time
The music for this song was written by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sammy Kahn. The song would become a major hit as its theme was a lover welcoming their partner home after the war. The song could be sung from either a male or female perspective, so, though the first recording that reached # 1 on the charts was By Harry James with Vocals by Kitty Kallen, a second recording by Les Paul with Vocals by Bing Crosby would work it’s way up the charts replacing the Harry James version.

Les Brown and Doris Day
Sentimental Journey
Written by Les Brown and Ben Homer with lyrics by Arthur Greene, the song, with vocals by Doris Day, would hit #1, and stay 23 weeks on the charts. The song would be released at the end of WWII in Europe and would become one of the popular songs associated with soldiers coming home from the war.

Vaughn Monroe
There I’ve Said It Again
This was written by Redd Evans and David Mann. Its original popularity would start in 1945, but it was also a song that would signify the end of an era of music. Bobby Vinton would record the song is 1963 and it would hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and would remain there for four weeks. It would be toppled by The Beatles with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” according to some music historians this musical event would end the “innocent rock era” and begin the modern rock era.