With the United States emerging as “The Arsenal of Democracy” and facing the daunting task of producing most of the weapons and supplies for the Allies throughout the war, more women than ever before joined the workforce. The Office of War Information soon launched a campaign urging women to “Do the Job He Left Behind,” a reference to the increasing numbers of soldiers ship-ping out for foreign shores and the need for wives, mothers, sisters, and sweet-hearts to take on the men’s work.
No task proved too difficult, and this new resource received celebration in a number of wartime tunes. “On the Swing Shift” (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer), which premiered in the 1942 movie Star Spangled Rhythm, served as one of the first songs to acknowledge this change in the nation’s traditional labor patterns. Composer Harold Rome contributed “On That Old Production Line” in 1943 for the Lunch Time Follies, a traveling musical theater group that entertained war workers. With “Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet” (1944; words and music by Don Raye and Gene DePaul), those poor souls who worked the graveyard shift and needed sleep at odd hours had a melody they could call their own.
