"Over There"
1917 sheet music cover with Nora Bayes
Song by Nora Bayes
Published1917
GenreWar-time song , March , Tin Pan Alley
Songwriter(s)George M. Cohan

"Over There" is a 1917 song written by George M. Cohan that was popular with the United States military and public during both world wars. It is a patriotic song designed to galvanize American young men to enlist and fight the "Hun". The song is best remembered for a line in its chorus: "The Yanks are coming."[1]

History

Cohan wrote it after he had learned that the US had abandoned their policy of non-interventionism and planned to enter World War I on the side of the Allied Powers.[2] It has been revived on various occasions during and after World War II.[1] It was not heavily used during the Vietnam War but has been used since the September 11 terrorist attacks.[3]

Lyrics

Sheet music from 1917 featuring sailor William J. Reilly of the USS Michigan
Cover drawing of soldiers from sketch by Henry Hutt

As sung by early 20th-century recording artist Billy Murray:

Verse 1

Johnny,[lower-alpha 1] get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run.
Hear them calling you and me,
Every Son of Liberty.
Hurry right away, no delay, go today.
Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy's in line.

Verse 2

Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
Johnny, show the Hun you're a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly;
Yankee Doodle,[lower-alpha 2] do or die.
Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee[lower-alpha 3] to the ranks from the towns and the tanks.[lower-alpha 4]
Make your mother proud of you
And the old red, white, and blue.[lower-alpha 5]

Chorus

Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware –
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over, over there.

Since 2009, UK comparison website Go.Compare used an adapted version of the song for their adverts, sung by Wynne Evans.[5][6]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Johnny" is a very common English given name and is used to address any anonymous man or men.
  2. ↑ Also sung as "Like true heroes..."[4]
  3. ↑ Also sung as "Soldiers..."[4]
  4. ↑ Short for "tank town", meaning any town so small its primary purpose was to provide water for steam locomotives.
  5. ↑ Also sung as "And to liberty be true."[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Mondello, Bob (December 20, 2018). "George M. Cohan, 'The Man Who Created Broadway,' Was An Anthem Machine". American Anthem. NPR. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Over There". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
  3. ↑
  4. 1 2 3 Gottlieb, Robert; Kimball, Robert, eds. (2000). Reading Lyrics: More than a Thousand of the Finest Lyrics from 1900 to 1975. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 17. ISBN 9780375400810. Retrieved April 29, 2022 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Ramsay, Fiona (August 18, 2009). "GoCompare creates opera singer to take on Comparethemarket's meerkat". campaign.co.uk. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  6. ↑ Price, Karen (July 26, 2015). "Go Compare: The most annoying man on telly is back". WalesOnline. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
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