Collister did, however, believe it was a surefire hit – a view that drummer Malcolm Holmes did not share. Title Įnola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress, pictured in 1945 Initially proud of the song, McCluskey's confidence wavered: he re-recorded his vocal, but was dissatisfied with the final mix of the track. The song is named after the Enola Gay, the USAAF B-29 Superfortress bomber that carried Little Boy, the first atomic bomb to be used in an act of war, dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, killing more than 100,000 of its citizens. The name of the bomber itself was chosen by its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets, who named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (1893–1983), who had been named after the heroine of the novel Enola or, Her fatal mistake.
The lyric to the song reflects on the decision to use the bomb and asks the listener to consider whether the bombings were necessary ('It shouldn't ever have to end this way').
