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Musical Chairs Part II

© Earl Rickard

In 1941, James Caesar Petrillo, the outspoken president of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), commissioned a study to determine whether the use of recorded music took away jobs from musicians. The survey found that the record companies paid millions of dollars to AFM members and any problems caused by records could not be solved by a musicians strike. Nevertheless, Petrillo wanted to restrict the commercial use of recordings, particularly juke boxes and radio play. He believed juke boxes took away musician's jobs and record-playing radio stations eliminated the need to hire studio musicians. The AFM's contract with record companies including the big three -- RCA Victor(owned by NBC), Columbia (owned by CBS), and Decca -- expired at midnight July 31, 1942. At the AFM convention on June 8, 1942, Petrillo announced that beginning on August 1, no AFM members would record or contract to record any mechanical music.

Given a little less than two months, the big bands and their record companies launched a recording spree. Many of the famous big bands were still recording new tunes on July's final day. On August 1, 1942, in recording studios across the nation the sound of the big bands ceased. Outside the window of Petrillo's Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite, youngsters marched with signs reading: "Look at the dough he has and he won't let us have records." "All we have is a juke-box and a nickel -- and now he won't let us have that." But Petrillo stayed true to his word with one exception: Musicians were permitted to record for the government's Victory Disk Project, recording "V-Disks" for the troops overseas.

The record companies prepared well for the strike. In addition to the numerous records pressed just before the strike, the record companies held many unreleased master records in their vaults. They pressed these tunes and sent them to market along with many re-releases.

One of the retreads, Tommy Dorsey's "I'll be Seeing You," went nowhere during its original release in 1940; re-released in 1943, in the middle of World War II, the song became a big hit. The band singer on that record saw his opportunity in the musicians strike and left Tommy Dorsey's band at the end of 1942 to sing solo -- Frank Sinatra. Not considered musicians by the AFM, singers were free to record, and they did. Backing themselves with small singing groups, Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and other singers happily sang and recorded their hearts out. In the process, they came out from the shadow of the big bands.

In September 1943, after a year of the record war, Decca signed a four year agreement with the AFM accepting a

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