Is It Love or Is It Conscription?

Les Brown and His Band of Renown play while an impossibly young Doris Day sings the title song in this soundie.

It's one of thousands of soundies, short musical films created from the late 1930s through the middle of the 1940s to play on a device known as a Mills Panoram. You may think of them as video jukeboxes, or precursors to music videos. You could find them in bars, and a dime in the machine would bring you one of ten songs.

And that's how Miss Day started out in the movies in 1941, almost eight years before she was 'discovered' in 1948. This lively swing number has her and the band in military uniform belting out the tune, showing what she could do. Eventually, the big producers would figure it out.

This war-time soundie might surprise you if it appears on TCM as between-feature filler. Les Brown and His Orchestra, in a relaxed setting, play the oddly titled tune, which might be unremarkable except that a young Doris Day sings it. This is one of three soundies she sang with Les and the boys in 1941. It's a joy how she gives the song energy and brightens the set with her beauty.

As for the song itself, if you read the lyrics, you will find it to be a clever and frank analysis of a war-time phenomenon. Its humor arises from its directness. At the same time, one might find sadness in the fact that a draft notice could push young couples into marriage.