Just before Christmas 1941, Johnny was listening to the radio when the report came that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Suddenly World War II, which had been threatening to pull the U.S. in, was real and the country was fighting on two fronts in Europe and Asia. Johnny wanted to avoid the draft, but immediately volunteered to serve his country in other ways; he and other stars entertained troops stationed in California and did broadcasts on the Armed Forces Radio Shows.

As the war continued, Johnny began writing songs about the soldiers’ experience, and his ability to replicate languages and dialects helped him capture the military lingo.

This is the G.I. Jive,
Man Alive,
It starts with the bugler
Blowin’ reveille over your head
When you arrive.

As Johnny’s music inspired the servicemen to fight for their country, he continued to think about the musicians and performers he was surrounded by each day. “I used to ask myself what talented people did between picture and radio jobs,” Johnny says.

In a conversation with Glenn Wallichs, the owner of the Music City record store, Johnny and Wallichs started talking about how to produce and distribute quality music records. Johnny expressed unhappiness with the way record companies handled the talent, and Wallichs thought the existing distribution set-up was flawed. Together the two men formulated a better way to operate their new label, while capitalizing on the fact that there weren’t any record labels on the west coast. The big recording labels, like RCA and Decca, were on the east coast, and smaller companies that had tried to compete with them in the past had not been successful. But they didn’t have the practiced ear of Johnny Mercer or the business savvy of Glenn Wallichs.

The new company, Capitol Records, was immediately beset by problems. The musicians union was preparing for a strike because radio stations were increasingly using records instead of live performers to broadcast music. The copyright laws of 1909 stipulated that records were for home use only, leaving only live performances for the radio (quite the opposite of how things are done 100 years later!), but radio stations were ignoring this law and the musicians strike was meant to put a stop to the practice.

In addition, World War II was still raging, and the U.S. government had seized 70 percent of the nation’s shellac reserves. Shellac was the primary ingredient in bombshells, but also in records. The government needed the shellac to create munitions for the armed services, so the fledgling company didn’t have the raw materials necessary to create the actual records on which the performers would record their music. Wallichs found a temporary supply of shellac, but the company eventually had to purchase and grind up half a million pounds of old records to create new ones.

While Wallichs navigated the business side of the company, Johnny supervised the talent and their recordings. The two men worked quickly in order to get as many recordings done before the impending musicians’ strike, and when the strike went into effect three months after the company formed, Johnny and Wallichs had several hits and enough recordings to be able to keep producing and selling.

Johnny’s taste ran to swing music, very popular at the time, but he was able to keep up with the rest of America’s interests, and also brought in country and western performers. Perhaps his best discovery was Nat “King” Cole. Capitol Records was increasingly successful, and much of that could be attributed to the chemistry Johnny brought to the recording studio and how he inspired the singers and musicians to produce stellar performances. He also kept writing his own songs, including the very popular “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive.”

Johnny was a major force at Capitol until 1948. By then the company had grown very large; it was no longer the small, elite recording label Johnny had envisioned. He left because he didn’t like the direction it was going in, focusing heavily on profits and less on quality music and performances.

Vocabulary

Bugler – a serviceman who plays a bugle, a type of trumpet, to wake the troops up

Distribution - the act of sending out a product to consumers

Front – a line of battle in a war, where two military forces meet

Munitions – ammunition used in war

Reveille – a bugle sounding to wake troops mornings

Stellar – outstanding or top-quality when in relation to theatrical or musical performances

Strike – a move to stop work to force an employer or industry to meet a demand

Union – an organization of workers formed for the advancement of the individuals in respect to their wages, benefits and working conditions

Teaching Tips

Students can research and write an essay about how World War II affected the people who were at home, such as with food rations. How did people sacrifice their everyday comforts and luxuries in order to support the country and armed forces?

Older students can write an essay comparing the musician’s union strike against radio stations because of copyright infringement with issues musicians face today with copyright infringement becoming more prevalent with the advent of the Internet, i.e., peer-to-peer networking sites where users trade songs (or even images and movies) without the copyright holder benefiting.

Media Links

Click here for a recording of Johnny Mercer's "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" 

Click here for a video clip of Johnny Mercer and Nat “King” Cole performing “Save the Bones for Henry Jones” 

Sources

Philip Furia, Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003), 133- 38, 165-167