Crooning for a Cure: The song that changed NC’s health landscape

Written by Jamie Baxley

For the first few months of 1947, everywhere you went, the song “'' was being played.the all Up to you” was inevitable.

Recordings of the song by Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore were played in heavy rotation on radio stations and jukeboxes throughout the state. The lyrics to a swinging big band song were published on the front page of a local newspaper. Copies of the song's sheet music were distributed to public schools, and students were required to learn and perform the song.

Although largely forgotten today, “It's All Up To You” was written to raise awareness of North Carolina's poor health conditions. It was the centerpiece of a public education and communications campaign that had a lasting impact on the state's health infrastructure.

Creating a health plan

Two years before this song was released, the State Hospital and Healthcare Commission presented some troubling statistics to the General Assembly.

North Carolina had the highest draft refusal rate in the nation during World War II. More than half of the men drafted in the state were deemed medically unfit for military service, many suffering from diseases such as hookworm and tuberculosis.

[1945年までに、ノースカロライナ州には住民350万人に対して医師は2300人しかいませんでした。医師不足は非常に深刻で、地方の郡で生まれた乳児の4分の1が医師の立ち会いなしで出産した。

同州の100郡のうち39郡では黒人患者用の病床が不足しており、ジム・クロウ南部では黒人患者は隔離された施設で治療を受けることを余儀なくされていた。 33の郡では病院がまったくなかった。

これらおよびその他の問題が、徴兵たちの健康状態を最悪の状態に陥らせる一因となった。

ジョセフ・ブロートン知事の要請を受けて、委員会のメンバーは状況を改善する計画を策定した。 彼らの提案では、「人種、信条、財源に関係なく、すべての国民に施設、医療、公衆衛生サービスをより適切に提供する」ために病院と診療所の建設を求めている。

彼らはそれを「健康計画」と呼びました。

カイザーに呼びかける

委員会は、4,800万ドルの計画に資金を提供するよう議員を説得するには国民の支持が必要であることを認識していた。

1946年3月、委員会はトーマスビルで州の「指導的な医師と一般人」200人による会議を組織した。 その集まりから、「健康を教育する」ことを目的としたボランティア委員会である Good Health Association が誕生しました。[e] North Carolinians said they desperately need more doctors and hospital beds. Isaac Greer, director of the Baptist Children's Home orphanage, was appointed president of the association.

Wanting to enlist a prominent figure in North Carolina to help with the effort, Greer contacted bandleader Kay Kaiser. The Rocky Mount native had released several chart-topping swing records with his own big band orchestra in the 1940s. He also appeared in a series of successful Hollywood comedies, including “You'll Find Out,” “Playmates,” and “My Favorite Spy.”

oh professor swing Kaiser needed little convincing. After learning of the health crisis in his home state, the musician embarked on an impromptu tour of more than 30 counties to raise money for an educational campaign. He also used his experience in show business to create a marketing and advertising prospectus for the Good Health Association, which adopted this document.

Planned marketing was inevitable over the next few months. The association used dramatic signs, brochures, news releases, displays at pharmacy counters, essay contests for school children, and all other media to promote the benefits of the health plan.

But in a report released by the association at the end of the campaign, Kaiser said many residents “will never read about the state's poor health record, and even the most eloquent speakers will not be surprised by the shocking statistics.” I'm not going to hear you argue about it.''

“But he felt these people would sit and listen to the music's appeal.”

Spread the “health alert”

Kaiser is probably second most successful Songwriting duo of Tin Pan Alley's Rodgers and Hammerstein.

lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne The two are established New York hitmakers who first teamed up three years ago for the Oscar-nominated song “I've Heard That Song Before.” Their longest-running collaboration, the Christmas classic “Let it Snow!” Let it snow! “Let it Snow!” propelled crooner Vaughn Monroe to the top of the charts in 1945.

Kahn and Stein wrote the lyrics and upbeat music for “It's All Up To You” within 24 hours. They framed it as a call to action, urging North Carolinians to “spread the health alert to every town and farm” in the state.

“We need vitamins and medicine and a spare bed.”

A place where sick people can go and receive treatment

There are many new devices to fight diseases

A clinic where poor people can go at affordable rates.”

The lyrics also reference Leonora Martin's poem “The Old North State,” which would be recognized by the General Assembly as “The Old North State” ten years later. official toast North Carolina:

“If we do these things, we will become a nation.”

A place where the weak become strong and the strong become great.”

With the association's “musical appeal” in print, Kaiser began searching for a singer whose “It's All Up To You” would resonate with radio listeners. Luckily, he was able to share a record label with two of the country's biggest rising stars.

sinatra and shore

Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore were among Columbia Records' most popular artists in 1946.

Sinatra had released his first full-length album, the best-selling The Voice of Frank Sinatra, earlier that year. Although Sinatra was from New Jersey, he had things in common with many men from North Carolina. That said, he was once refused military service during World War II.

Shore, newly signed to Columbia, was enjoying success with singles such as “Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)” and “The Gypsy,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts.

Kaiser approached Sinatra and Shore with “It's All Up To You,” and they agreed to sing it for free. According to newspaper reports, they spent about an hour recording Kaiser's orchestra and vocals at a studio in Connecticut.

“It's All Up To You” officially premiered on New Year's Day 1947 as part of a special program broadcast on every radio station in North Carolina. Her over 9,000 copies of this track were then sent to stations for distribution to listeners.

A report issued by the association states: “Even after the record allocation was transferred, many radio stations continued to play “It's All Up to You'' every day, and disc jockeys continued to ask for the number. It is reported that there have been many requests for

The records were also sent to county and city school superintendents, along with a printout of the song's sheet music. Some schools required students to perform “It's All Up To You” during Health Week in February of that year.

The truck was given to a jukebox operator in the state's largest city. Displays promoting the song were placed in record store windows. An article about it was published in the newspaper.

An article published in The State Port Pilot of Southport referred to the recording as a “songsation”.

The newspaper said, “Perhaps no single step or feature in a health advertising campaign that never gets boring for a moment is more decisive than this modern device.''

lasting impact

The Good Health Plan was approved by Congress in March of the same year, and Congress agreed to spend $32 million (equivalent to about $440 million in 2023) toward the initiative.

Another $16 million hill-burton methoda federal law signed by President Harry Truman the previous year to increase the nation's supply of hospital beds.

The money earned from this act will ultimately be 230 medical facilities In North Carolina, according to the National Health Law Program.

In addition to its role in expanding the state's hospital system, the Good Health Plan paid for the construction from the four-year medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The once ubiquitous hymn that helped rally support for the project has been forgotten, but time hasn't forgotten it. You can listen to “It's All Up To You” today spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.