This piece originally ran in the May 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
When Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, Americans had so much pride they didn’t know what to do with it. The composers and lyricists working in New York City’s “Tin Pan Alley” put their patriotic feelings into song. This collection of sheet music dates from 1927, and while some of the songwriters have not stood the test of time, some like George M. Cohan are still considered one of the greatest songwriters of the early 20th century. Cohan, the patriotic composer of “Over There,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and “The Yankee Doodle Boy” was commissioned by the Chicago Herald and Examiner to write his contribution to welcome Lindbergh home: “When Lindy Comes Home.” Whether they described him as “plucky,” “lucky,” an “eagle,” or an “angel,” Americans from “Gotham to Nome” were singing Lindbergh’s praises when he came back from Paris an aviation hero.
