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Songs of the IBM

2011/06/11 By Rob 22 Comments

A few years ago there came into my possession a curious piece of IBM history, a thin paperback volume of 54 pages, privately printed, entitled “Songs of the IBM, 1937 Edition”. The opening page lays out the context:

For thirty-seven years, the gatherings and conventions of our IBM workers have expressed in happy songs the fine spirit of loyal cooperation of good fellowship which has promoted the signal success of our great IBM Corporation in its truly International Service for the betterment of business and benefit to mankind.

In appreciation of the able and inspiring leadership of our beloved President, Mr. Thos. J. Watson, and our unmatchable staff of IBM Executives, and in recognition of the noble aims of purposes of our International Service and Products, this 1937 edition of IBM songs solicits your vocal approval by hearty cooperation in our song-fests at our conventions and fellowship gatherings.

It is signed “Yours in International Service, Harry S. Evans”. More on Evans later.

Here’s the index of the 100 songs contained.

After some patriotic songs, it moves to the “I.B.M. Rally Song” called “Ever Onward”:

And then it moves to a series of songs praising Thomas J. Watson. At that point I had an uncomfortable feeling about this. Masses of people singing the praises of their leaders and pledging loyalty is something that is historically tainted. We just don’t do that today, at least not outside of North Korea. But we must be cautious if we try to read 1942 into 1937. In the days before television, and when radio was still young, group singing, to a piano or small band was quite common. Some readers might remember this even reaching into the television era with NBC’s “Sing Along with Mitch” show.

The tradition at IBM was started by Harry Evans in 1925, the man who made IBM sing. Literally. In “The Maverick and his Machine”, Kevin Maney describes:

If Watson sang, IBM would sing. As with the dress code, Watson did not order IBM to sing. That bit of corporate culture started with Harry Evans. Outgoing, attention-seeking, good-natured, wired with energy and shorter than every other man in the room, Evans was always the guy with joke, or the guy willing to laugh at a joke. Watson liked him and promoted him.

Evans loved to sing, and he enjoyed setting his own lyrics to popular songs. …

As the years went on Evans informally assembled quite a few songs about IBM or people at the top of IBM. In 1925 Evans went to Watson and proposed printing a booklet of his IBM songs so that any of the employees could sing them at gatherings. It might be fun, Evans said. Watson liked the idea. At company sales conventions and other gatherings, employees already sang patriotic numbers and songs of good fellowship. Why wouldn’t they want to sing about IBM?

It was not only the IBM President who had a song. Members of the executive team each had a song, including on to “F.C. Elstob, Comptroller”. How often do you see a song written to honor a comptroller? Not very often.

Innovation and patents were important to IBM, even in 1937, as shown in this song, dedicated to “W.M Wilson, Manager, Patent Department”:

Many of us know of the “THINK” motto that Watson popularized. But did you know there was a song, sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”?

Not all songs have aged so well, such as “To Our I.B.M. Girls”:

And one parting song, as we come to the 100th anniversary of IBM on June 16th, 2011. It is interesting that in 1937, IBMers considered the founding of the company to have been 1888, not 1911, as indicated in the “Fortieth Anniversary Song of I.B.M”. With a complex corporate history, like IBM has, there are many dates that could celebrated. In any case, if I had any clue what the tune to “Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching” was, I’d join my colleagues in verse 3.


Addendum (2012-07-13): Several readers have asked about getting a scan of the complete song book. So here it is, the 1937 edition of the Songs of the IBM.

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What is the Earliest (First) Christmas Carol?

2010/12/13 By Rob 17 Comments


(You should click the above time line to get a larger, more readable version).

Before we can answer the question of the first or earliest Christmas carol, we need to deal with some preliminary questions.  What is a carol?  What is a Christmas carol? And how does one determine a date for  Christmas carol?  None of these questions are trivial.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “carol” as “a ring-dance with accompaniment of song” or “a song; originally, that to which they danced” or “a song or hymn of religious joy”.  The later definition hits the mark most closely. However, we also have a large number of non-religious seasonal songs of similar joyous character, and I will include them as well.  But even then there are some little controversies to note:

  • Is “Jingle Bells” really a Christmas carol?  The best evidence is that the song was composed for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
  • And what about “Do you hear what I hear?”  This was written in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.   If you read the lyrics with any care it becomes obvious that the imagery is about missiles not Christmas: “A star, a star, dancing in the night \ With a tail as big as a kite.”

However, both songs appear to have become seasonal standards, regardless of their original meaning, so who am I to argue to otherwise?

Dating carols is also tricky, especially since the tune and the lyrics often date from different times.  A great example is “What Child is This?” where the lyrics date to 1865, but the tune (Greensleeves) dates to the 16th Century.  Where such dates differ I take the later date, the date when the text and the tune were wedded.  In some cases the text might have been set to music multiple times, with different tunes in use in different countries.  “While Shepherds Watched their Flocks at Night” is a great example, set to numerous tunes from 1700 to 1903.  In such cases I have taken the date of the version most-familiar in the United States.

[amazon_link asins=’B000005IVR,B003DZPRNO,B00B48D892′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’ananticdispos-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’048e3f30-0c57-11e9-930a-6bb2ccf60deb’]

The above time line shows the Christmas carols that I knew in my childhood.  Your core group of carols may differ from this, based on your age, country, language, ethnicity, religion, etc.  Although my horizons would widen as I grew older and went to school, so I can now recognize a broader set of international and ancient carols, from “In Dulci Jubilo” to “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” to “Riu Riu Chiu,” the above set represents my “native” carols, the ones I knew as a child.  Everything beyond that I consider to be an import.

[amazon_link asins=’B00122FUTQ,B002WP3SGE’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’ananticdispos-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3ef78e92-0c57-11e9-980e-5d3e70aceb53′]

The oldest carol on this time line is, not surprisingly, “Adeste Fideles”, published in 1751, with a history that goes back even further.  I remember it being sung in church in my youth, with the words slightly modified, coming out with a loud, clear-throated “Adeste Fideles!” followed by a muted, “mumble, mumble mumble” until a fortissimo “in Bethlehem.”  Maybe it was different when Latin was still taught in schools.

[amazon_link asins=’B00123CXGS,B005CJTX6G’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’ananticdispos-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9713b514-0c57-11e9-a653-a580711a1f53′]

It is also notable, looking at the time line, that there was a “golden age” of carol writing, say 1840-1860.  We have hardly seen a prominent traditional church carol since then.  However, the 20th century has given us a large number of new secular standards and commercial holiday songs.

I’d be interested in hearing from other traditions and cultures:  What is the earliest holiday song that you commonly hear this time of year?  Something a mother might sing to a child, or a family or church sing together?

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The most recognized tune of all time

2007/08/10 By Rob 41 Comments

Simple question. What tune would you say is the most recognized tune? If we limited ourselves to the United States and the present day, the answer might be “Happy Birthday.”

What if we included all time and all nations? “Happy Birthday” goes back to only 1893. Some tunes are much older, like “Greensleeves,” (16th century) but well-known in only some nations. While others have global reach, but are of more recent vintage, like McCartney’s “Yesterday” (1965).

So what do you get if you account for both factors and try to seek the tune that the most people in history would be able to recognized, something that has great durability over time as well as a global reach?

Any ideas? I’ll hold my guess and post it later.

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Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

2006/01/09 By Rob 512 Comments

I’ve been reading Games and Songs of American Children by William Wells Newell, a Dover reprint of the 1903 edition. I find it fascinating how games are transmitted from generation to generation, games like “Tag”, “Button button who has the button?”, “The church and the steeple” or “Odd or even?” These games are not learned from teachers in a school, or read in a book, or typically even taught from parents. For the most part they are transmitted from child to child, from an older sibling, or a peer, through the most casual pathways.  Games like this have spread across the country and beyond without any overt effort. In a way, it is like language.

So, that made me think about the “classic” children’s Christmas parody of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. I assume there is no part of this country where these words are not known to every child. But it exists in no songbook. Who first sang these words, and when and where was it done? How fast did it travel? I think if a sufficient survey was done of adults of various ages, as to when and where they recall first hearing these lyrics, one could reconstruct the migration of this bit of modern folklore. Those who heard it earliest would have heard it closer to its source.

It would help my little research if any old-timers (say over 40 years old) left a comment indicating what version you heard first, where you heard it (town and state) and approximately what year you heard it. I’d like to figure out what the original version truly was, and where it came from and how fast it spread.

There are several variants of this song. The one I grew up with was:

Jingle Bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg.
The Batmobile lost a wheel
and the Joker got away (Hey!)

Other commonly reported versions include:

Shotgun shells, Santa smells,
Rudolf ran away,
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a beat-up Chevrolet!

or

Jingle bells, shotgun shells,
Santa Claus is dead,
Rudolf got a .22
and shot him in the head.

or

Jingle Bells, Shotgun Shells,
BB’s in the air.
Oh, what fun it is to ride
in Santa’s underwear!”

or

Jingle Bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg,
The Batmobile lost a wheel,
and the Joker joined ballet , Hey!

Check the comments for other variations. Some have alternate lyrics to the verse as well as the chorus.

Also, if you are interesting in crazy Christmas music, then here are two CD’s, filled with zany holiday classics, for your consideration:


12 December 2015 Update

Nine years after I wrote this post I was prompted by Robert Evans over at Cracked to offer updated thoughts on the question of the origins of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells.”  We both went through the comments on this post, correlated the dates and places, and I then did further research in newspaper archives to try to locate the earliest printed occurrence of these lines.   What we found out might surprise you.  More over at The Secret True History of “Jingle Bells Batman Smells.”

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