September 2, 1995 marked fifty years since the end of World War II.
Fiftieth anniversaries tend to command attention, and a Pittsburgh school teacher found himself one of many reflecting on the significance of the events. His intent was to pique his students’ interest in the war, but he deepened his own fascination along the way.
Because to this teacher, it wasn’t just history. It was his history.
The son of a preacher, John Grushecky was drafted into the U.S. Army and participated in the Invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Liberation of Paris. He earned a Purple Heart and Silver Star for his service to his country, and one day while on furlough he met Mildred, the woman he would marry.
Fifty years later, their son realized that while he knew bits and pieces of how they’d met, he didn’t know the whole story. So Joe Grushecky decided to interview his parents, who retold their history to their son.
He started capturing their story but soon found himself chronicling it in song–because Joe wasn’t just a teacher, he was also an accomplished rock and roll singer, songwriter and bandleader.
Joe wrote a beautiful and moving ballad about his father’s wartime experience and his parents’ romance, and he framed it through the lens of the pivotal year when they were reunited and peace was restored to the world.
There was only one problem: he couldn’t figure out what to do with the chorus. He’d written the lyrics, but he couldn’t find the right music to pair them with.
He was stuck.
Fortunately, Joe had a friend to turn to–a friend who was also the producer of Joe’s work-in-progress album and a singer-songwriter of some renown himself.
During a lull in the American Babylon recording sessions, Joe played his mostly complete song for his friend Bruce Springsteen and asked for a musical assist to finish it. Bruce obliged and supplied the music for the chorus, and with that last ingredient Joe finished “1945,” the sweet, romantic and true story of John and Mildred Grushecky.
“Practically every word is true,” Joe told me.
Even the music contributes to their story, especially Jamie Peck’s Glen Miller-esque saxophone outro. (John Grushecky was a sax player in the Army band.) “1945” is one of Joe’s most skillfully and delicately arranged tracks, as cinematic as any of Bruce’s own songs.
Bruce doesn’t appear on the studio track, and he’s never performed it with Joe. But his assist helped his friend keep his parents alive and young forever in song.
1945
Released: Coming Home (1998)
Never performed
