I've Heard That Song Before

As we approach the first anniversary of The Mark Steyn Club, we'll be presenting some musical celebrations as part of the festivities, so do keep an eye on our home page as the days go by. I've always thought of our Song of the Week as perhaps our least controversial department, if only by comparison with all the war and politics and whatnot all over the rest of the site. So I was interested to discover our musical offerings are as toxic as everything else around here. Late on Friday, having brought a ten-million dollar suit against me and lost comprehensively, CRTV and its billionaire owner Cary Katz decided to re-sue me, this time for a mere five million dollars. Pages 68-76 of their 200-page complaint are a printout of Song of the Week #325 "We are the Champions" and pages 77-85 are a printout of Song of the Week #320 "Oh Happy Day", both of which exhibits Mr Katz claims are disparaging and defamatory of him. Neither mentions him or CRTV, and our legal team is mystified as to why even CRTV would lay these harmless essays before a judge. But we thought we might ask SteynOnline readers for their insights. So, if you can identify anything in my essay "Oh Happy Day" that is actionable, let us know by emailing here, and we'll pick a winner and buy him or her a year's subscription to CRTV. They're apparently rather short of subscribers, and now that Katz has sued his own company into insolvency we need to help bulk up their cash-flow so they can afford to pay us the damages Judge Bransten and Judge Gordon have ordered. Second prize is two subscriptions to CRTV, but you undoubtedly saw that joke coming.

>>celebrate the 75th anniversary of “I’ve Heard That Song Before” reaching Number One on the Billboard pop chart. It wasn’t merely at the top for this particular week in 1943; it was Number One for the entirety of March, the entirety of April, and the entirety of May - and then, after being briefly supplanted by “That Old Black Magic” for a solitary se’nnight, it returned to the top for a last hurrah in June.

There was a recording ban at the time (for union musicians). Some had stockpiled tracks to be released but it was a stifling time in the music industry (and some say it opened the door for hillbilly, er country western, and race records, er rhythm and blues, to slowly take over the charts (with their child, rock and roll).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942–44_musicians%27_strike

Beginning at midnight, July 31 1942, no union musician could make commercial recordings for any commercial record company.[1] That meant that a union musician was allowed to participate on radio programs and other kinds of musical entertainment, but not in a recording session. The 1942–44 musicians’ strike remains the longest strike in entertainment history.

The strike did not affect musicians performing on live radio shows, in concerts, or, after October 27, 1943, on special recordings made by the record companies for V-Discs for distribution to the armed forces fighting World War II, because V-Discs were not available to the general public. However, the union did frequently threaten to withdraw musicians from the radio networks to punish individual network affiliates who were deemed “unfair” for violating the union’s policy on recording network shows for repeat broadcasts.

—

https://libcom.org/history/1942-1944-musicians-recording-ban

1942-1944: US musicians recording ban

The musicians’ union called a ban on all commercial recordings, as part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians.

The union, the American Federation of Musicians, led by trumpeter James Petrillo, had previously opposed the recording of music, or “canned music”. Musicians were replaced with records in radio, and in cafes and bars bands were replaced with jukeboxes.

For over a year no music was recorded by unionised musicians in America. The only important group of musicians not part of the union was the Boston Symphony.

Record companies recorded as much music as they could in the run up to the strike and released this backlog through, but also resorted to re-releasing old recordings. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were among the singers that had to release singles without musical accompaniment (vocalists were not in the union as they were not considered musicians). One record company recorded and released Shakespeare’s Othello when they had no music to release.

...Decca and Capitol gave into the AFM in 1943, RCA Victor and Columbia held out but eventually backed down in 1944, and the recording ban ended.

Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were among the singers that had to release singles without musical accompaniment (vocalists were not in the union as they were not considered musicians).

The ban on instrumentalists making recordings led to some creative--and beautiful--arrangements during the period when the ban was in effect. Included is my favorite Frank Sinatra recording.

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning--Frank Sinatra (1943)
Put Your Arms Around Me--Dick Haymes, with the Song Spinners (1943)
People Will Say We're In Love--Bing Crosby & Trudy Erwin, with the Sportsmen's Glee Club (1943)
Johnny Zero--The Song Spinners (1943)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.