The Daughter was singing We’ll Meet Again. I asked her how the heck did she know that song, which first came out long before I was born?
She was watching a video called Film Theory: Gravity Falls ISN’T OVER! (Bill Cipher LIVES!) Gravity Falls is an animated TV series that ended a couple years ago. There’s a reference to We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn at the 9:00 mark.
Then The Daughter tested me to come up with the songwriter – not that she knew herself, mind you. Not only did I not know, none of my choir buddies did, though we guessed a lot of the likely suspects.
It turns out that it was written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, who also wrote “There’ll Always Be an England.”
The singer most associated with the tune is Lynn who turned 100 on March 20, 2017 and is still alive, I believe. She was described as England’s most popular singer during World War II, and she appeared on British TV for many years.
From the Wikipedia:
The song gave its name to the 1943 musical film… in which Dame Vera Lynn played the lead role. Lynn’s recording was used in the closing scenes of the 1986 BBC television serial The Singing Detective. British director John Schlesinger used the song in his 1979 World War II film, Yanks, which is about British citizens and American soldiers during the military buildup in the UK as the Allies prepared for the D-Day Invasion…
Lynn sang the song in London on the 60th Anniversary of VE Day in 2005.
Pink Floyd makes reference to this song and the performer in Vera, a song from their album The Wall: “Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?/Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?”
Listen to We’ll Meet Again (chart action from US Billboard singles chart):
Vera Lynn, #29 in 1954
Kay Kyser, Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt, and ensemble vocal, #24 in 1941
Guy Lombardo, #24 in 1941
Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee, #16 in 1942
The Ink Spots, 1949
Frank Sinatra, 1962
The Byrds, closing track of their debut album in 1965, inspired by the Lynn version’s use in the film Dr. Strangelove
Johnny Cash, closing track on his 2002 album American IV: The Man Comes Around, the final album released during his lifetime
She and Him, 2014
My memory of this song is from Dr. Strangelove, accompanying Slim Pickens as he rode a nuke into oblivion.