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You don't hear so much about Brother Jonathan these days, but when I was a youngster I heard many a tale about the singing fiddler who travelled up and down the countryside, spreading his songs like seed across the mountains and valleys of America. And I've heard them say, "when Brother Jonathan played the fiddle the sun came out and the flowers danced in the fields;" and people who heard him play of an evening would stand around listening with a look of wonderment in their eyes, as if they had seen a miracle.
For Brother Jonathan sang of America - what it means and what it can be. His eyes saw the dream of freedom shining down like stars upon a beautiful land and he lifted his voice and put the dream into song. But he knew the world is made up of little people so his songs had simple words and the smile in them was a greeting to his friends. And the people understood Brother Jonathan, the singing fiddler, and his little songs became a part of them.
In 1946, Ted Cott, as program director for radio station WNEW, commissioned Hy Zaret and Lou Singer to write a series of one minute "jingles" on racial understanding and Americanism. The resulting collection of 12 songs was called Little Songs on Big Subjects. WNEW transcribed 5 of them and aired them as what later became known as Public Service Announcements (PSAs). The Institute for Democratic Education made them available to stations throughout the U.S., and the songs aired daily on hundreds of radio stations. By 1949, an executive from WNEW estimated the songs had aired half a million times.
The original recordings featured The Bachelors, with Ray Porter arranger and conductor. In 1947, Argosy published a songbook with cover illustration by Roger Duvoisin, and VOX Records released an album (VOX VSP 306) in their Spotlight Series, with cover art by Don Shapiro.
In January 1949, a new record featuring The Jesters with Roy Ross and his orchestra was released with 11 songs. It did not include "The Poor Old World." The cover design was by Otto Soglow.
Pete Seeger recorded "It Could be a Wonderful World". Teaching Tolerance uses it in their programs. The Girls Scouts use "I'm Proud to be Me" and "I Want to Live in a Friendly World" in their Rock The Mall sing-along. In 1953, the Anti-Defamation League produced a musical cartoon of "Ol' Commodore Gray."
Little Songs On Big Subjects received many testimonials and awards.
In 1948, WNEW commissioned the team to write a second series of six songs called Little Songs About UN. These were recorded by The Jesters with Roy Ross and his orchestra. The United Nations radio station played them daily and shipped 1,000 copies to other radio stations. They were released as an album and a songbook in November 1949. This series also recieved many testimonials and awards.
Over the next half decade, the team wrote Little Songs for Living Longer, Little Songs for Better Schools, Little Songs for Polio Protection, Little Songs on Fire Prevention, Little Songs for Busy Voters, and Sing-Along for Mental Health, which received the National Association for Mental Health Award for "outstanding contribution in the field of Mental Health."
Around 1953, Columbia Records commissioned the team to write a collection of songs about science: Now We Know (Songs to Learn By), sung by Tom Glazer and Paul Tripp. A few years after that, Basic Books commissioned the team to write an album for their Science Materials Center. The album was called Space Songs. It was such a success, the team used songs from Now We Know and wrote new songs for 5 more albums to create a set called Ballads for the Age of Science.
In 1967, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Little Songs, Argosy produced an album called It Could be a Wonderful World. using new recordings of songs from Little Songs on Big Subjects and Little Songs About UN. Leon Bibb and Ronnie Gilbert are the lead singers, and Robert De Cormier is the conductor. The wonderful cover for the album was designed by Leo Lionni
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