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STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- |
Posted on 04/04/2004 3:47:30 PM PDT by LaserLock
From the first colonial chanteyman to recent “American Idol” finalist Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Josh Gracin, members of our armed forces have loved to sing. But many Americans don’t know about the contributions military minstrels have made to music in the United States. Here is a hit parade of songs by composers and singers whose duty to our country included creating a popular song.
The Song Our Forefathers Hated
Everyone knew and sang the tune. Then Richard Shuckburgh wrote a ridicule of the Connecticut militia to it, and his version became the most popular—and most despised—in the 13 colonies. British troops sang the “Yankey Song” on march, off duty, and outside churches; they literally sang the colonists into rebellion. Yet this mockery of our armed forces became our first national hit.
On April 19, 1775, Lord Hugh Percy led 900 soldiers from Boston to Concord, Mass., to punish the insurrectionists, seize ammunition stores, and apprehend rebel leaders. An earlier expedition frantically retreated into their ranks, fleeing colonial sharpshooters. Percy battled his way back to Boston one bloody mile at a time. Ecstatic with success, the American soldiers “captured” the Shuckburgh ditty and sang it as their anthem of victory. Historian Stuart Murray notes, “The ‘Yankey Song’ soon would have new words and a new name: ‘Yankee Doodle,’ America’s song of triumph.”
America’s song generated “Yankee Doodle in Mexico,” “Yankee Doodle for Lincoln,” and George M. Cohan’s smash adaptation, “Yankee Doodle Boy,” with melodic appearances in everything from Anton Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” to Dave Brubeck’s “They All Sang Yankee Doodle.”
The Negotiator’s Anthem
During the War of 1812, an attorney asked President Madison’s permission to intervene on behalf of his imprisoned friend Dr. William Beanes. With letters in hand, the lawyer boarded the British ship Surprise and began negotiations for the physician’s release. Suddenly, the English fleet attacked Baltimore, and the captain insisted all Americans remain on board during the battle. The negotiator paced the deck watching the bombs bursting in air, but by dawn’s early light, he saw a star-spangled banner waving over Fort McHenry.
Did Francis Scott Key scribble our national anthem on the back of a letter or keep the verses in his head until released? No matter—one fact is clear: According to a letter by Chief Justice Roger Taney, Key “was a Volunteer in the Light Artillery, commanded by Major Peter ... employed in active service.” Another American soldier hit!
Whitney Houston’s “The Star Spangled Banner,” sung at Super Bowl XXV at the height of Desert Storm, registered such acclaim she released it for charity; the single reached gold in April 1991. A reissue after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack rose to No. 6 on the U.S. Hot 100 Singles charts.
The Eighth of January
Gen. Andrew Jackson and his army waited for the British in New Orleans behind a barricade of cotton bales and sugar barrels. On Jan. 8, 1815, the redcoats invaded and suffered 2,000 casualties to the Americans’ 22. This victory swept Jackson into the White House. In Songs of Independence (Stackpole Books, 1973), Irwin Silber reports that “an anonymous soldier bard” took down the particulars of the Battle of New Orleans and turned it into the folk favorite, “The Eighth of January.”
In 1936, high school history teacher Jimmy Driftwood reached back to “The Eighth of January” and updated the verses to teach his students. Country music vocalist Johnny Horton recorded Driftwood’s lesson plan, and “The Battle of New Orleans” topped the country and pop charts in 1959.
Brothers Hymn to Battle Hymn
William Steffe’s “O Brothers Will You Meet Me On Canaan’s Farther Shore?” might have disappeared in the smoke of the Civil War, but a Massachusetts infantry company rescued the tune to compose a tribute to their fallen leader Sgt. John Brown. The Union army sang “John Brown’s Body” across the country, praising the abolitionist hero who led a slavery revolt at Harper’s Ferry, W.Va. The march moved Julia Ward Howe to write fresh lyrics, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” became our nation’s patriotic psalm.
“The Battle Hymn” always has been singable, but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir proved it salable as well. Its 1959 Grammy-winning version made it to No. 2 on the “Hit Parade.”
Marching Home
Union bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore wrote “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” in time for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender and a rousing return home for the troops. After the war, Gilmore’s “Peace Jubilees” included “Johnny” with as many as 1,000 musicians accompanying 10,000 singers and climaxed his songs with the firing of real cannon. “Though written and popularized during the Civil War,” writes music historian David Ewen, “this song achieved its greatest success during the Spanish-American War, with which it is now identified.”
After enlisting in 1942, Maj. Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Band released “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” along with other hits. English pop star Adam Faith took it to No. 5 on the U.K. charts in 1960.
The Private’s Musical
A Broadway composer applied for service in 1917 and ended up at Camp Upton, N.Y. Gen. J. Franklin Bell called the recruit into his office, told him he needed $35,000 for a service center, and asked him to write and stage an Army show to raise the funds. The enlistee wrote the entire score based upon his experiences in boot camp. “Yip Yip Yaphank” opened July 26, 1918, and the private, pulling $40 a month, delivered the general a check for $80,000. The induction of Irving Berlin gave the armed forces its most prolific songwriter with two “hitch” tunes: “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” and “God Bless America.”
No one heard “God Bless America” during World War I. Berlin shelved it until Kate Smith’s 1938 Armistice Day program—when sheet music sales exploded. “That song got America through World War II,” says Dr. Carole Delaney, a music professor at California State University, Sacramento. “It was the standard-bearer Americans leaned upon for emotional support.” “God Bless America” renewed its popularity when Congress sang it on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
“God Bless America” never charted, but it still rings out.
More Golden Oldies
A Marine officer serving in the Mexican War in 1847 authored “The Marines’ Hymn” (hence “from the halls of Montezuma”). The music is from Jacques Offenbach’s opera “Genevieve de Brabant.” The lyric about “the shores of Tripoli” refers to battles with the Barbary pirates.
Gen. Daniel Butterfield rewrote the popular “Tattoo” into the well-known “Taps” around 1862 to help burial details avoid skirmishes with the Confederates. Rifle salutes initiated return fire, but the bugle tribute did not.
Bandmaster Charles Zimmerman at the U.S. Naval Academy joined with Midshipman Alfred Miles to create the unofficial theme of the Navy. “Anchors Aweigh” started as a football song sung first at a 1906 Army-Navy game; Navy won.
Army Brig. Gen. Edmund Gruber wrote the popular song “The Army Goes Rolling Along” in 1909 while a lieutenant. John Phillip Sousa expanded it to the “Field Artillery March.”
Asked to provide a tune for a football cheer, Army Lt. Philip Egner hummed one up during an evening walk. Lacking paper, he wrote “On Brave Old Army Team” on his cuff.
“The song that serves a nation’s heart is in itself a deed,” reflected Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the favorites from our military minstrels have strengthened American spirit for 200 years. When will the next sergeant top the charts? When will the next Marine croon on national television? Stand duty, keep watch, and listen. Even now there is a singing soldier ready to strike—with a new hit from the armed forces!
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At the time, a copyright lasted 75 years. Berlin wrote "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in his early 20's. So, when he lived into his 90's, his first great hit then passed into the public domain while its author was still alive.
Congressman Billybob
As is the nature of these things, my flight at AF ROTC field training, modifed this song to become our favorite. Each flight wore a different color ball cap when wearing fatigues. Ours were red, and we were "F" flight. So we became "F-Troop" (after a TV comedy of a few years earlier) and the young lady wore her red (rather than yellow) ribbon for her lover who was in "F-troop". The Flight Training Officers (FTOs) , especially OURS, hated it. :) But ours did like the spirit of it. Couldn't do that today, but we were one of the last of the segregated encampments, and had no women. A couple of years later, I'm told, that the camps were mixed but segregated by wing of the barracks, and even then some were mixed but segregated by flight. For all I know today they only segregate by individual room and toilet facilities. (I hope :) ).
"Anachreon" was written for male chorus (TTBB) accompanied by strings and continuo (continuo = harpsichord + cello). It was in minuet tempo, minus the accidentals (sharps and flats) we sing today. Today's tune is distilled from the 4 vocal lines, which is why it starts at the bottom and runs all the way to the top, occupying a vocal range not suited to one singer alone.
During the Bicentennial, I heard "Anachreon" -- all 12 verses -- sung in its original arrangement. It sounds like something that Handel would have written on a bad day.
Well, I wouldn't knock the 7th Cav either, but as Sgt. Maj. Plumly is portrayed as saying at LZ-Xray: "Custer was a pussy". Sort of a MacArthur without the military acumen. (It wouldn't surprise me if the Sar' Major said it in real life, but I've not had time to consult the book to see if the quote in there as well.)
Barry Sadler
Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret
Chorus:
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America’s best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret
Trained to live off natures land
Trained in combat, hand-to-hand
Men who fight by night and day
Courage peak from the Green Berets
Chorus:
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America’s best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret
Back at home a young wife waits
Her Green Beret has met his fate
He has died for those oppressed
Leaving her his last request
“Put silver wings on my son’s chest
Make him one of America’s best
He’ll be a man they'll test one day
Have him win the Green Beret”
Chorus:
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America’s best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret
The Great Defenders
Lee Greenwood
Written by Dan Bradley
Hot spots brewing in a foreign land,
We count on you bein' there
24 hours around the clock,
Protectin' us everywhere
The more I get around this world,
The more I realize
That the greatest force found anywhere
is right before my eyes.
CHORUS:
(Oh) Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines (Hooah!)
You're the greatest show of strength
This world has ever seen,
Coast Guard, National Guard,
Along with the Reserves,
We salute our Nations best
Standing ready Proud to Serve
You're the Great Defenders of the U.S.A.
You're the Great Defenders, workin' while we play,
Champions of freedom,
This song goes out to you,
You're the Great Defenders of the red, white and blue.
There's pride when you display our colors
Keep your promise true,
If someone messes with Old Glory
They have to answer to you
And the more I get around this world
The more I realize,
That the greatest force found anywhere
Is right before my eyes.
CHORUS:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines ( (Hooah!)
You're the greatest show of strength
This world has ever seen,
Coast Guard, National Guard,
Along with the Reserves,
We salute our Nations best
Standing ready Proud to Serve
You're the Great Defenders of the U.S.A.
You're the Great Defenders, workin' while we play,
Champions of freedom,
This song goes out to you,
You're the Great Defenders of the red, white and blue.
You're the Great Defenders of the U.S.A.
You're the Great Defenders of the U.S.A....
I still have my orginal wings, I expect to be buried with them when my time comes.
You can be proud of your Daddy and I am sure he is proud of you, God bless.
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