DESCRIPTION:
Two songs from the revue "Pins and Needles", music and lyrics by Harold Rome.

Information from the website workingclassheroes.me :

New York, 1937. The ILGWU --International Ladies' Garment Workers Union- was already using the old Princess theater as a union meeting place. A few members decided that they would like to participate in a theatrical revue, just among themselves. The revue, which was already somewhat of an old-fashioned form carried over from vaudeville and burlesque, usually contained songs with a very sketchy and or superficial plot, usually just enough of a theme to hold the show together.

But with socially and politically involved writers engaged in putting together the revue, it was not likely to lack social significance, which was indeed the name of the first song sung in it: "Sing Me a Song with Social Significance." Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emmanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, David Gregory, Joseph Schrank, Arnold B. Horwitt, John Latouche, and Harold Rome wrote the dialogue; Harold Rome wrote and composed the songs. Max Danish, editor of the ILGWU publication Justice, came up with the title.

The participants, all ILGWU members, rehearsed in the evenings and on weekends when they had time off. The first production was expanded when word of mouth excitement over the production brought hundreds of expectant and non-ILGWU members to the revue. The show was moved to the Labor Stage Theater and opened officially on November 27, 1937. In 1939, it moved to the Windsor Theater. It closed in 1940 after 1108 performances.

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The recordings by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra were made January 26, 1938. What prompted Cab, and/or his management, to select such political material is unknown, but it makes an interesting variation in his discography.