Music of The Greatest Generation

Wednesday, November 8, 1 PM

To most of us, World War II is a conflict studied in school history classes. But to a whole generation, sometimes called “The Greatest Generation,” it was a significant event of their lives, it was up close and personal. Young people, men for the most part, were caught up and sometimes uprooted and swept away to foreign shores. They served on the battle front, on the home front and at sea.

One of the things that kept them in touch with home was their music, but recorded music didn’t travel well when its medium was fragile lacquer discs. Besides, lacquer was now a war commodity and in short supply for things like popular music.

Add to that the recording ban that began in mid-1942, resulting from the conflict between the musicians’ union and the major recording labels over the payment of royalties. What to do? How could we bolster the morale of our fighting forces overseas?

The Special Services division of the War Department had been formed in 1940 to boost the morale and welfare of service members. That problem was now in their hands, but they had a couple of important questions to resolve first.

No lacquer? “We’ll use this new material—vinyl.”

Musicians not able to record? “We’ll negotiate with the union and the recording companies to put out a product expressly for the troops; we’ll call them ‘V-Discs.’ We won’t be involved in the strike, because those recordings will later be destroyed and not released to the public.” (Fortunately for us, that didn’t happen.)

V-Discs
Photo by P.Sasonoff, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 

V-Discs were a vital component of troop entertainment through the war and the immediate post-war years. Most popular singers and musicians participated, often donating their services to the war effort. Many of them included introductions wishing good luck and safe return for the listening troops. The music provided a touch of home to military members worldwide, who played their discs on the special wind-up record players which accompanied the shipments of the records.

Most members of that ‘greatest generation’ who fought in World War II are not among us any longer, but the music itself endures—it endures as a timely piece of nostalgia, reminding us of another time and perhaps those special people who had such a connection to it. Each Saturday evening on the Fish Fry Neal Murray presents music of that era and the stories behind the artists and recordings. In commemoration of Veterans Day, WHRV presents a special hosted by Neal featuring music taken entirely from V-Discs and never released commercially. It’s called, “Remembering V-Discs, Music for Our Military.” 

Tune in on Wednesday, November 8 at 1:00 p.m. on WHRV. (Veterans Day is Saturday, November 11.) You can also listen to the live stream online or through the WHRO app.

  

Watch this demonstration of a V-Disc player in action:


Hear a sample of the music: