[2] Bay played in front of an audience every chance he got, including a stint with a snake oil salesman in and around his hometown.

Once a crowd gathered to listen, Bay would stop playing, and the salesman would pitch his cure-all.

[1] After the war, Bay was asked to write instructional material on the guitar for GIs wishing to learn music under the GI Bill.

[3] In 1947, he formed Mel Bay Publications and wrote the first book, The Orchestral Chord System for Guitar.

[1] Mel Bay Publications produces instruction books and sheet music for many instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, violin, clarinet, accordion) and many genres (classical, jazz, folk, blues, rock).

Mel Bay received Lifetime Achievement awards from the Guitar Foundation of America, the Retail Print Music Dealers Association, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. made October 25, 1996 Mel Bay Day in St. Louis.

The comedy song "Ode to Mel Bay" (written and first recorded by Michael "Supe" Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and featured on the album The Day Finger Pickers Took Over the World by Tommy Emmanuel and Chet Atkins), pokes fun lovingly at Mel Bay's books.