WAR DEPARTMENT — The Armed Forces Radio Service Basic Music Library, Radio Section, Los Angeles, U.S.A. Volume No. P.155, 33⅓ Outside Start. Jo Stafford with Paul Weston and Orchestra:

1. What A Difference A Day Made (3:00)
2. Don't You Know I Care (2:51)
3. I Don't Want To Love (3:04)

This transcription is the property of the War Department of the United States Government and use for commercial purposes is prohibited. SSL-245.

Listening to AFN during WWII*

Later generations of AFRS (later AFRTS) records would say "War and Navy Department" (and in some cases just "Navy Department"), and finally "Department of Defense". Click the Enlarge button on top of the image to see the record closer up, or CLICK HERE to see a super-high resolution image.  The disk is undated, but it's from 1945 because that's when these songs were recorded. Jo Stafford was the kind of singer our parents listened to; even if you don't remember her or recognize the name, some of her songs are probably engraved in your mind such as You Belong to Me ("See the pyramids along the Nile..."). If you had a stay-at-home mom in Frankfurt, she probably had the radio tuned to AFN all day and this is the kind of music they mostly played, so even though we teens preferred other kinds of music, we know many of these "old standards" by heart. Btw, there's enough space left on this side for one or two more songs, but the non-commercial AFRS didn't feel compelled to fill up every disk. The other side (Red Norvo Quartet) has four tracks with not much room left for another.

Jo Stafford was affectionately called "G.I. Jo" because of her extensive USO touring during the War and early postwar.

Read more about the Armed Forces Radio service and its discs.

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AFN broadcasts were heard in England during the war, for American military personnel who were there (one-to-two million of them). AFN stations were set up in France before war's end after the Germans were driven out, and in Germany itself two months after the European war ended in May 1945 (read more).