A while ago for no particular reason I posted the song that was No. 1 on the Billboard chart on Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (Chattanooga Choo Choo). This made me wonder what the most popular song was in America on the day the U.S. entered WWI, April 2, 1917.
The ability to provide such rankings was rudimentary at the time and had much to do with things like sheet music sales, but one can find some relevant information.
Not surprisingly as the war effort picked up steam songs like “Over There” and “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” would soon make their mark. One with which I was not familiar, “In the Sweet Long Ago,” hit the charts in April of 1917 and stayed there for five weeks.
Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to devise a methodology to rank songs of the period. You may want to check that out. Unfortunately, it may not be possible to state definitively that any one song was at No. 1 on a given day prior to 1920. My only claim is that it seems “In the Sweet Long Ago” was becoming popular as American boys started getting used to the idea they would be fighting and perhaps dying on the fields of France.
By the way, The Library of Congress National Jukebox is an amazing resource for historical sound recordings. They provide the following information on this song:
It was recorded below by the King’s Orchestra with vocals by the Sterling Trio (John H. Meyer, Albert Campbell, and Henry Burr) pictured above. The song was written by Arthur Lange and Alfred Solman, words by Bobby Heath. If you really want to dig deep, instrumentation is 2 violins, viola, flute, bass, 2 clarinets, trombone, oboe, bassoon, and 2 cornets. It is categorized as traditional/country and was recorded in New York City on December 11, 1916.
It is rather touching that this song, harkening back to simpler times, would be popular as America entered a war that would change everything.