"At Mail Call Today" is a song written by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

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 Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

. 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

References

*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. Gene Autry songs Songs of World War II 1944 songs 1945 singles Songs written by Gene Autry Okeh Records singles Military mail {{1940s-country-song-stub

Background

Chart performance

Charts

References

Further reading