Brother Can You Spare A Rhyme?
During the height of the Depression, in March 1932, Herbert Hoover called a meeting with Rudy Vallee in the White House, at which Hoover told Vallee that if he could “write a song to drive away the Depression,” he would “rate a medal.” Vallee demurred, instead recording “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”A history of “meltdown music.”