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Heavenly Aeroplane

        "Heavenly Aeroplane", published as a Bob Nolan song in Bob Nolan's Folio of Original Cowboy Classics No. 2, p. 46, is the slightly revised version of  "The Heavenly Aeroplane" by J. S. McConnell © 1928 (p. 28 of Gospel Quintet Songs, Thoro Harris.)  Thanks to research by a reader, we have discovered the sheet music for the original.

        The rest of the story.  

Both melody and words are slightly different. Interestingly, it is Bob Nolan's words and melody that have survived and are used by current artists.

The Heavenly Aeroplane (midi file of the original McConnell tune thanks to www.mudcat.org)

Heavenly Aeroplane (Sons of the Pioneers, 1934)

Heavenly Aeroplane (Bob's tune played by J. E. Mainer & The Mountaineers)

Below is the sheet music for each rendition of "Heavenly Aeroplane" for your comparison:

The question of copyright:  

        In a telephone conversation with John McConnell, son of J. S. McConnell, Elizabeth Drake McDonald discovered that the composer never did copyright any of his compositions. His son was unable to explain the presence of the song in the Thoro Harris hymnbook although he knew Thoro was a friend of his father's.

        In other words, American Music may have considered the original "The Heavenly Aeroplane" to be in the Public Domain when they placed the Nolan arrangement in Bob Nolan's Song Folio No. 2 in 1940.

      Was Bob Nolan aware he was modifying copyrighted material? Very likely not. We consulted two respected music historians for their opinions.

1. Here is Laurence Zwisohn's take on it:

Bob was very particular about his songs being original. You know the story of why he initially turned down Riders in the Sky. However, Bob wasn’t averse to making modifications to existing songs. As a matter of fact Lloyd [Perryman] told me he was convinced one of the verses to How Great Thou Art had been written by Bob.

My suspicion is that something like this transpired:

The Pioneers recorded Heavenly Airplane for Vocalion in October 1937. On February 16, 1938 American Music copyrighted 8 of Bob’s songs including Heavenly Airplane. I haven’t checked but this might have been for one of the song folios. It appears that American never copyrighted Bob’s songs until either a recording was released (saving on the registration fee) or they were planning to publish copies of the song. I don’t think Tim had any involvement in this whatsoever. He and Bob were signed to American Music but American ran their own business.

As to whether copyrighting the song was legal: The 1928 copyright may not have been known to American. They didn’t have computers then and it was difficult to find out what was copyrighted. My guess is they knew the Pioneers had recorded the song for Vocalion and (perhaps) needing songs to fill out the folio they copyrighted Heavenly Airplane.

It is legal to copyright arrangements of traditional songs. By law you’re supposed to make some changes to the song but it’s impossible for copyright offices to keep track of such things so, all too often, artists copyright their “arrangement” of a Public Domain song even though they haven’t changed a thing.

I doubt Bob had any knowledge of the copyrighting of the song. He changed it to suit the Pioneers. Did he know there was a legitimate copyright in existence? It didn’t matter to him. The real test would be to check the Vocalion record and see if they listed a writer. If not then Bob thought it was PD. However, since it wasn’t released until some considerable time after it was recorded it might have his name listed since, by that time, American Music had copyrighted it. Should American have known there was a preexisting copyright? Logic says that a song about an airplane can’t have been traditional in 1938 when Wilbur and Orville didn't get up into the air until 1903.

2. Lawrence Hopper observed:

We don't know that Bob had the songbook in which it was published. Tim may have had a standard arrangement of the song in his possession as part of his music business activities and if there was no date or publisher info on that sheet it is possible Bob took it to be a PD work.

It is interesting to note also that no one who was familiar with the original O'Connell version ever heard Bob's recording or the Sons of the Pioneers perform the song anywhere.

It is also interesting that the people who screen songs at the copyright office did not check it against all song titles in their records A) When Bob sent it for copyright, and B) When O'Connell registered a copyright renewal in 1957, if they registered a renewal. If they didn't it is now in the Public Domain and Bob's version is safe having been renewed in 1965 for the original sheet music and in 1967 for the renewal on the Bob Nolan Songbook No. 2.

Note that there were NOT enough changes to the song (dialect spellings don't count) because it is obvious from a quick cursory examination that they are the same song.

Calin Coburn Collections © 2004

   NB: Photocopies of the sheet music for this song are available from Calin Coburn, Bob Nolan's grandson. Email Calin for more details.

The story behind the original "The Heavenly Aeroplane" according to John McConnell, J S McConnell's son:

        Evangelist, John Saunders McConnell (1892-1966) was born in Seattle, WA. His father was a Rev. T. W. McConnell who came to Oregon with the first pioneers. He wrote the song when airplanes began to be seen in the skies and he taught it to his children. He had a large family and they loved to join in with him singing the lively tune.

        Young John was about five years old when his father wrote the song and airplanes were still a source of wonder. The child had heard of them and looked at pictures of them but he had never seen a real airplane.

        In 1920 in Walla Walla, WA, young John was playing in the yard when he saw his first airplane in the sky. He ran into the house shouting, "Mommy come quick! Jesus is here!"

        Interestingly, J. S. McConnell did not register any of his compositions for copyright. He was content with writing them. (John McConnell, March 8, 2010)