Over There! and Back Again: Patriotic American
Sheet Music from World War I

Selections from the
Wade Hall Sheet Music Collection

The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library
The University of Alabama

Exhibit by Jessica Lacher-Feldman,
Hoole Special Collections Library
and Daniel Goldmark, School of Music,
The University of Alabama

Women in the War: Daddies and Daughters

These songs about “Daddy” represent probably the most emotionally striking pieces written during the War. All of these songs have an antiwar sentiment, projected through the image of all the children left back in the States while their fathers go off to fight—and possibly die—in foreign lands. As one critic put it, “the bewilderment and simple understanding of children makes for great musical storytelling”.

Probably one of the most popular in this vein was “Hello Central! Give Me No Man’s Land,” a song popularized by Al Jolson; the Broadway star introduced the song in the stage show Sinbad in 1918. Since young boys had to be courageous and stalwart, they were not depicted as sad, but rather as wanting to join their fathers, as in “Daddy, I Want To Go.”