George Washington Liked Good Roast Beef Lyric

When we were very little, my brother and I had a record entitled Little Songs on Big Subjects. Sung by The Jesters, one of the first groups to record commercial jingles, the tunes, written by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer, emphasized tolerance. Zaret, who died in 2007 just a month shy of 100, told me in 2002 that he thought of the songs as short, catchy jingles.

We played the LP until the grooves wore out.

Little Songs on Big Subjects was a big hit. In 1949, The New Yorker, in a Talk of the Town piece about Zaret and Singer's new project—songs about the just-born U.N.—noted that an executive of WNEW, a NYC-based radio station, estimated that tunes from Little Songs on Big Subjects had been broadcast (I'm guessing he meant nationwide) "almost half a million times to date."

Little Songs on Big Subjects is long out of production. Searches on the web currently yield no copies for sale.

Lou Singer & Hy Zaret (c. 1948)

There were 11 songs:  "What Makes a Good American," "Brown-Skinned Cow," "Columbus Said, "Si, Si, Signor"," "I'm Proud to Be Me," "Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger," "Ol' Commodore Gray," "Traveling Broadens One," "It Could Be a Wonderful World," "There Were Thirteen Colonies," "I've Got a Church, You've Got a Church," and "American Hymn."

A couple of tunes ("I'm Proud to Be Me" and "It Could Be a Wonderful World") have been covered by others, but my favorite, "Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger," one of the first tunes I ever memorized, is MIA.

Here are the lyrics accompanied by the original Soglow illustration from the record:

Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

England, China or Alaska,
Mexico or Madagascar,
Indonesia, Ireland or Peru —
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

No type of blood is better,
No type of blood is best,
Each type of blood is just as good —
No better than the rest!

Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

In the mountains or in the valleys,
Rich hotels or slum-like alleys —
Any place you point your finger to,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

Plumbers, bankers, men of science,
Clerks or teachers, dwarfs or giants —
Makes no difference what they are or do,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

It may be "A" or "AB",
It may be "B" or "O",
Whatever type it may be, sir,
There's one thing you should know:

Nature has no fav'rite nation,
Color, creed, or occupation —
Any place you point your finger to,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

Someday you may be in danger;
Then along will come a stranger
With a bit of blood to pull you through…
A stranger's blood may save your life for you!

Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There's someone with the same type blood as you!

[These lyrics were copied from the original record sleeve.] Words: Hy Zaret Music : Lou Singer © 1947 Oliver Music & Argosy Music (ASCAP)

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Full disclosure: Singing under the name Pobba, I recorded "I'm Proud to Be Me" and "It Could Be a Wonderful World" on my CD "My 'Magination."

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Source: http://stevecotler.com/tales/2009/03/08/little-songs-on-big-subjects/

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