‘Til We Meet Again

Richard A. Whiting (1891–1938); Raymond B. Egan (1890–1952)

 “Till We Meet Again” was written during World War I and is about a soldier saying goodbye to his sweetheart. My mom used to sing it as a child when she played ukulele and sang with her sister, Jeanette. But I never heard the intro until I worked it out myself on my juke (See “By The Beautiful Sea”). Like many song introductions, it’s largely forgotten, but the well-known body of the song is still often used as the last dance at old time ballroom dances.

In 1918, a Detroit theatre held a contest for a war song. Remick’s Music asked its employee, Richard Whiting, to enter the contest. He and lyricist Raymond B. Egan worked on “Till We Meet Again” but didn’t think it was good enough and threw it away. His secretary took the song out of the garbage and entered it into the contest—of course, it won. It went on to sell over eleven million copies of sheet music, the most of any song before orsince. The times and the subject matter certainly furthered its popularity.

Whiting’s daughter, Margaret, became famous for singing it during World War II and went on to a long career. Her father’s “My Ideal” became a sort of theme song for her.

Besides writing two of my favorite songs, “Beyond the Blue Horizon” and “My Ideal” (my song pick for 1930), Whiting wrote a song called “Rock and Roll,” which was sung by the Boswell Sisters in a 1932 movie called Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. It may well have been the first use ever of the phrase “rock and roll.”

Raymond Egan wrote, or co-wrote, many other songs, including, “Ain’t We Got Fun,” “Japanese Sandman,” and “Sleepy Time Gal,” all big hits in their day.