Of Thee I Sing, Baby

Tin Pan Alley has been hard at it since the U.S. entered the war, patching together patriotic songs. First number to hit the radio networks was sung by Eddie Cantor and Dinah Shore. It had been carpentered during a rehearsal of Cantor's show. Title: We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again.

> Oops-sorry note: First week, the authors called it The Japs Won't Have a Chinaman's Chance. But that seemed disrespectful to the Chinese. Last week it became The Japs Won't Have a Ghost of a Chance.

> In the scramble for Pearl Harbor songs Band Leader Sammy Kaye launched Remember Pearl Harbor. Mills Music. Inc. got out the following: WE'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR Brightest jewel of the blue southern sea, Our lips will be saying 'Pearl Harbor On each bead of our Rosary; The angels will smile on Pearl Harbor Till the last leaf will fall from the tree, WE'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR Our Harbor of memory.*

> There was some split second tunesmithing. In Hollywood, a few hours after the news from Pearl Harbor, Composer Lew Pollack and Lyricist Ned Washington produced a number which Comedian Bert Wheeler sang that night at Ciro's: Oh, we didn't want to do it, but they're asking for it now. So we'll knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis. . . . They'll hear the beat of a million feet of people who'd rather fight than eat, And here we come, here we come. I'd hate to be in Yokohama when our bombers make a bow For we'll knock the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.

Mills rushed So We'll Knock into print. In Manhattan it published another song composed that Sunday afternoon: You're a Sap, Mr. Jap, by James Cavanaugh, John Redmond and Nat Simon. Excerpt: Uncle Sam is gonna spanky. Wait and see, before we're done The A. B. C. and D. will sink your rising sun. . . . You're a sap, sap, sap, Mr. Jap.

> B.M.I, accepted for publication They Started Something (But We're Gonna End It!), by Robert Sour, Don McCray and Ernest Gold. Some of 260 titles submitted in three days: Let's Take a Rap at the Japs, Taps for the Japs, We're the Guys to Do It, Those Nasty Nasty Nazis.

> Publishers Bregman, Vocco & Conn accepted We've Got To Do a Job on the Japs, Baby and We're Going to Find a Fellow Who Is Yellow and Beat Him Red, White and Blue.

> Rhyme of the week: To Be Specific, It's Our Pacific.

> A New Yorker cartoon (by Robert Day--see cut) showed a songwriter dreaming up: Stop the Wop, Rip into Nippon, The Hun is done. . . .

* Songs are here reproduced by permission of copyright owners.

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