Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!oliveb!sun!rfm@urth
From: rfm@urth (Rich McAllister)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: IBM Songbook?
Message-ID: <94771@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 89 01:23:37 GMT
References: <1371@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG> <932@dover.uucp>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: rfm@urth (Rich McAllister)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Lines: 32

Yes, there was an IBM songbook, from the '30s through the '50s.
I never heard of people being "forced to sing every morning" though --
the songs were sung at gung-ho pep-rally "all hands" meetings.  Around
the early '60s someone decided that this was just too too embarrassing
and rounded up all the copies they could find and destroyed them. 

The most famous IBM song was "Ever Onward" which was the company's
anthem.  According to one the IBM histories (either _THINK_ or _The
Lengthening Shadow_) TJ Watson once commissioned an "IBM Symphony" with
"Ever Onward" as the main theme.

A few years ago, someone at IBM Santa Teresa Lab had a 1931 edition of the
songbook reprinted and put copies in the library -- I have one.  The songs
are truly dumb, mostly addressed to various IBM execs of the day; I'll
restrain myself and quote only one (one of the best!), to the tune of
"Singing in the Rain":

    Selling IBM, we're selling IBM
    What a glorious feeling, the world is our friend
    We're Watson's great crew, we're loyal and true
    We're proud of our job and we never feel blue*
    We sell our whole line, we're there every time
    To chase away gloom with our products so fine
    We're always in trim, we work with a vim,
    We're selling, just selling, I-B-M.

*No doubt this should be changed to "..we're part of Big Blue", but this
 book predates "Big Blue".  Heck, at this time IBM was still selling
 butcher's scales and time clocks.

Rich McAllister (rfm@sun.com) -- IBMer for 13 years, never sang a song.
Don't even know the tune to "Ever Onward".