At Mail Call Today
Introduction "'''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", "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. Autry, after a brief lull in film making due to WWII, would be back to his pre-war output by 1946.
Background The song is similar to other contemporary love songs and deals with the possibility of unfaithfulness. 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''.
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. 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)PeakpositionU.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles1
References
Further reading *Cusic, Don. ''Gene Autry: His Life and Career.'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2007. *Jones, John Bush. ''The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939–1945.'' Waltham. Mass. : Brandeis University Press, 2006. *Kingsbury, Paul and Alanna Nash. ''Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America.'' London: DK, 2006. *Wolfe, Charles K. and James Edward Akenson. ''Country Music Goes to War.'' Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005.