Meredith Willson – The 1940’s Pop Songwriter.

In another post, we discuss the early years of Iowa’s Music Man – Meredith Willson. After moving from his hometown of Mason City to New York City, Meredith began his professional musical career playing flute and piccolo in both the symphonic band of John Philip Sousa (1921-1923) and with the famed New York Philharmonic (1924-1929). In the 1930’s, Willson moved west to San Francisco where he became the conductor of the San Francisco Symphonic Orchestra, composing two full symphonies that were performed by the orchestra in 1936 and 1940. In 1932, Meredith also became the west coast musical director for the new NBC Radio network, and it was in this position he became well-known in Hollywood for his broad musical abilities.

With NBC, Meredith became a true celebrity serving as the musical director for many of NBC’s top entertainment broadcasts. In November 1937, the network premiered a new variety show called Good News – which eventually became known as Maxwell House Coffee Time.

Every week, Meredith served as the musical director, conducting the live orchestra while interacting with the Hollywood stars who frequented the show, occasionally cracking wise with some of his “corny Iowa” humor.

As part of his job at NBC, he would often introduce new songs to the listening audience and by 1940, he was ready to include a couple of his own. Which brings us to…

(L-0052) Introduced in June 1941, You And I quickly became one of America’s top songs. As an instrumental, it became the theme song for Maxwell House Coffee Time, and the first recording available for record buyers came from one of America’s favorite crooners – Bing Crosby – accompanied by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra. Listen to that recording here…

First recording and first release by Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra on May 23, 1941 – released June 1941.

One month later, in July 1941, Iowa-native Glenn Miller and his Orchestra released their version…

Meredith Willson commented: “I wrote the words and music for You And I and it turned out to be the only song lyric in captivity that is just one sentence long.”

As you can see (below), You And I – over a 20-year period – was recorded by many of the big names in Hollywood…

(L-0122) With the great success of You And I, Meredith Willson quickly followed up with a parallel song written in that same foxtrot style – Two In Love – recorded by Vaughn Monroe and released in September 1941 – only three months before Pearl Harbor. If you know Meredith’s writing style, you’ll recognize his amazing ability to pair two songs using the same chord progressions – sharing musical ideas – yet standing individually as unique tunes as well. Several later examples of this writing style include The Iowa Fight Song and It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (1950), 76 Trombones and Goodnight My Someone (1957), and Lisa Rose and Will I Ever Tell You (1957) from The Music Man.

Take a listen to Vaugn Monroe’s recording…

First recording and first release by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra on August 15, 1941 – released September 1941.

With the success of Two In Love, a young Frank Sinatra – who was teamed with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra – released their version in October 1941…

Though not the chart-topper like its predecessor, Two In Love still remained popular well into the 1940’s.

When WWII broke out on December 7, 1941, Meredith Willson, like most American men, enlisted with the U.S. Army. With Meredith’s vast experience in the music industry, the War Department recruited him to become the first musical director for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), and over the next three years – 1942-1945 – Willson helped produce hundreds of radio shows that were broadcast to our servicemen across the globe. The centerpiece of that war effort was the show – Mail Call.

Lt. Col. Thomas A.H. Lewis – commander of the Armed Forces Radio Service – wrote in 1944… “The initial production of the Armed Forces Radio Service was ‘Mail Call’ – a morale-building half hour which brought famed performers to the microphone to sing and gag in the best American manner.” The program featured popular entertainers of that day, such as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Dinah Shore, performing musical numbers and comedy skits to boost the morale of soldiers stationed far from their homes. Lewis added, “To a fellow who has spent months guarding an outpost in the South Seas, Iceland or Africa a cheery greeting from a favorite comedian, a song hit direct from Broadway, or the beating rhythm of a hot band, meant a tie with the home to which he hopes soon to return.”

Meredith Willson, as musical director, continued as he had prior to the war, composing popular songs – only this time, the songs were introduced by the recording stars of the day on Mail Call. So, here is Iowa – Meredith’s very first effort to write and produce a song that would honor his home state of Iowa.

(L-0053) Iowa was introduced in 1944. Listen to this hilarious “live” version as Bing Crosby does his best to learn Meredith’s song as it was being broadcast for the first time to our soldiers around the world…

Despite the boo-boo’s, Bing finally got the song right, recording it as a hit single record later that year. Take a listen…

As you might know, after the war, Meredith Willson returned to NBC Radio, producing more variety shows right into the early 1950’s. On The Big Show on December 31, 1950, Meredith introduced his second song dedicated to his home state – The Iowa Fight Song. And, of course, in 1957, Meredith’s entire Broadway production of The Music Man is one big salute to the Hawkeye State! Read more here. And to think, it all started in 1944 with Iowa.