About the official song, "The U.S. Air Force" which I'm not that found of myself:
In 1937, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold persuaded the Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, that the Air Corps needed an official song reflecting their unique identity in the same manner as the other military services, and proposed a song competition with a prize to the winner. However, the Air Corps did not control its budget, and could not give a prize. In April 1938, Bernarr A. Macfadden, publisher of Liberty magazine stepped in, offering a prize of $1,000 to the winning composer, stipulating that the song must be of simple "harmonic structure", "within the limits of [an] untrained voice", and its beat in "march tempo of military pattern".[1]
Over 700 compositions were received and evaluated by a volunteer committee of senior Air Corps wives with musical backgrounds chaired by Mildred Yount, the wife of Brig. Gen. Barton K. Yount. The committee had until July 1939 to make a final choice. However, word eventually spread that the committee did not find any songs that satisfied them, despite the great number of entries. Arnold, who became Chief of the Air Corps in 1938 after Westover was killed in a plane crash, solicited direct inquiries from professional composers and commercial publishers, including Meredith Willson and Irving Berlin, but not even Berlin's creation proved satisfactory, although it was used as the title music to Winged Victory by Moss Hart.
Two days before the deadline, music instructor Robert Crawford, a rejected World War One Air Service pilot and professional musician billed as "the Flying Baritone," personally delivered a sound recording of his entry, which proved to be a unanimous winner. (not "Off We Go" or "Wild Blue Yonder") was created when Liberty Magazine promoted a contest for a song for the then Army Air Force back in 1938. "The magazine actually offered a $1,000 prize to the composer with the song that suited the Army Air Force the best. A committee of Army Air Force wives selected Robert MacArthur Crawford (1899-1961) composition which was officially introduced to America at the Cleveland Air Races in 1939 by Robert Crawford himself."
I much prefer this recruiting song originating in 1957 to the official song. It's "Air Force Blue" by Marilyn Scott and Keith Textor (1956) performed by Mitch Miller and His Orchestra. I own a copy of the promotional record which was sent to radio stations and have digitized it.:
[video=youtube;kL3Pxc4v0ZA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL3Pxc4v0ZA[/video]
The full version, but unfortunately with sound in left channel only. Lots of old military jet aircraft shots:
[video=youtube;pos1BzW_t2A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pos1BzW_t2A[/video]