At Mail Call Today
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". "At Mail Call Today" is a song written by American country music artist Gene Autry and Fred Rose. The two had a successful song writing partnership dating back to 1941, including "Be Honest With Me[1]", "Tweedle-O-Twill" and "Tears On My Pillow". Rose, with Roy Acuff, founded Acuff-Rose Music Publishing in 1942, and in 1947, would go on to producing Hank Williams.[2] Autry, after a brief lull in film making due to WWII, would be back to his pre-war output by 1946.[3]
Background
The song is similar to other contemporary love songs and deals with the possibility of unfaithfulness.[4] The lyrics describe a young soldier opening a Dear John letter at mail call and learning that the girl he loved from back home has left him. The final words reflect the soldier's despair:
Good luck and God bless you
Wherever you stray
The world for me ended
At Mail Call To-day.[5]
Chart performance
The song, recorded in December 1944, was Gene Autry's most successful song on the Juke Box Folk charts, peaking at number one for eight weeks with a total of twenty-two weeks on the charts.[6] The B-side of "At Mail Call Today", a song entitled, "I'll Be Back" peaked at number seven on the same chart.
Charts
| Chart (1945) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
References
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Further reading
- Cusic, Don. Gene Autry: His Life and Career. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2007. Template:ISBN Template:Catalog lookup link
- Jones, John Bush. The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939–1945. Waltham. Mass.: Brandeis University Press, 2006. Template:ISBN Template:Catalog lookup link
- Kingsbury, Paul and Alanna Nash. Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America. London: DK, 2006. Template:ISBN Template:Catalog lookup link
- Wolfe, Charles K. and James Edward Akenson. Country Music Goes to War. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. Template:ISBN Template:Catalog lookup link
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