What Makes a Song a ‘Camp Song’?
Most Aren’t Composed at Camp. Nor Are They About Camp. But They Unite Kids Across North America on Trails, in Mess Halls, and Around Bonfires
At a children’s summer sleepaway camp in upstate New York in the mid-1920s, two young staffers, Artie and Larry, write a song for the annual camp play. It begins:
I love to lie awake in bed
Right after taps I pull the flaps above my head
And watch the stars upon my pillow
Oh, what a light the moonbeams shed.
Some years later, Artie—composer Arthur Schwartz—is writing numbers for a Broadway revue and gets stuck for a melody. He remembers his camp song, ditches the lyrics (written …
