The Ballad of Rodger Young is an American war song

War song

A war song is a musical composition that relates to war, or a society's attitudes towards war. They may be pro-war, anti-war, or simply a description of everyday life during war times....

 by Frank Loesser

Frank Loesser

Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...

, written and first performed during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in March 1945. The ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 is an elegy

Elegy

In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...

 for Army Private Rodger Wilton Young, who died after rushing a Japanese machine-gun nest on 31 July 1943, and is largely based on the citation

Citation

Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...

 for Young's posthumous Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...

.

Writing and composition

Loesser wrote the Ballad of Rodger Young while enlisted as a private in the Army's Radio Production Unit, a unit staffed with top Hollywood talent and equipped with a dedicated orchestra, whose task it was to produce two radio recruiting shows a day. There, Loesser was charged with editing song sheets and writing songs designed to aid in recruitment. How Loesser came about to write the song is not entirely clear. There is some agreement among sources that the Army asked Loesser to write, in his daughter's words, "a 'proper' infantry song", but according to others the request came from E. J. Kahn Jr., an infantry public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 officer and friend of Loesser's.

Loesser decided to write the song about a Medal of Honor recipient, so he obtained a list of awardees and searched them for a name that would scan

Scansion

Scansion is the act of determining and graphically representing the metrical character of a line of verse.-Overview:Systems of scansion, and the assumptions that underlie them, are so numerous and contradictory that it is often difficult to tell whether differences in scansion indicate opposed...

. After dismissing many "wonderfully unwieldy melting-pot names", Loesser found "the perfect WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...

 name" at the end of the list: Rodger Young. Later, when the Army mounted a publicity campaign for the song, Loesser was asked for background material. As it would not have been politic to say that he chose Rodger Young simply because the name sounded well, Loesser agreed to publish a fictitious story about how he was told of Young's musical experience by the noted harmonica player Larry Adler

Larry Adler

Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...

.

Recording history and reception

The Ballad, sung by Earl Wrightson

Earl Wrightson

Earl Wrightson was an American singer and actor best known for musical theatre, concerts and television performances. His regular singing partner was the soprano Lois Hunt.-Early life and career:...

 with only a guitar accompaniment, was first broadcast in early 1945 in the radio program of Meredith Willson

Meredith Willson

Robert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man...

. The song was apparently considered unlikely to become commercially popular initially, as Burl Ives

Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....

 recorded it only on the B side of his hit single The Foggy, Foggy Dew

Foggy Dew

-Foggy, Foggy Dew:The first song of this title was of English origin, sometimes called “Foggy, Foggy Dew”, and is a lamentful ballad of a young lover. It was published on a broadside around 1815, though there are very many versions: Cecil Sharp collected eight versions. Burl Ives, who popularized...

. The Ballad does not appear on any charts

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 and there is therefore no concrete evidence for its actual popularity. According to World War II veteran and historian Paul Fussell

Paul Fussell

Paul Fussell is an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of genres, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America’s class system...

, the song "proved too embarrassing for either the troops or the more intelligent home folks to take to their hearts."

But several events gave the song, according to William and Nancy Young, a "much-needed boost": LIFE magazine devoted pages 111 to 117 of its March 5, 1945 issue to Rodger Young and Loesser's ballad, also reproducing the sheet music, and the Army created the Combat Infantry Band specifically to play the Ballad. The return of Rodger Young's body to the U.S. for burial in 1949 accelerated interest in the ballad again, with "best-selling" recordings of it being made by "a host of singers" before the end of the year, including Burl Ives, Nelson Eddy

Nelson Eddy

Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...

 and John Charles Thomas

John Charles Thomas

John Charles Thomas was a popular American opera, operetta and concert baritone.-Birth, schooling and stage debut:...

.

Consequently, several writers attest to the song being well-received both during and after the war. John Bush Jones writes that this "singularly moving", "simple but affecting song" "had a powerful impact on Americans at the time". M. Paul Holsinger notes that Wrightson's recording became one of the most requested songs of the war years. And according to then Army bandsman Frank F. Mathias, it became "the best loved theme" for American infantrymen.

Lyrics

While Loesser's melody emulates folksong, a normally pacific genre, the text of the song unapologetically glorifies military valor. About this, Loesser once commented: "You give [the folks at home] hope without facts; glory without blood. You give them a legend with the rough edges neatly trimmed." Despite its overt militarism

Militarism

Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....

, the text has been noted for its "narrative detachment and absence of sentimentality", as well as its "poignant urgency."

The lyrics are reproduced here in the form they were first published in Life, with minor changes in capitalization and punctuation.

1. Oh, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry.

Oh, they've got no use for praises loudly sung,

But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry

Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.

Shines the name — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

To the everlasting glory of the Infantry

Lives the story of Private Rodger Young.

2. Caught in ambush lay a company of riflemen —

Just grenades against machine guns in the gloom —

Caught in ambush till this one of twenty riflemen

Volunteered, volunteered to meet his doom.

Volunteered — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

In the everlasting annals of the Infantry

Glows the last deed of Private Rodger Young.

3. It was he who drew the fire of the enemy

That a company of men might live to fight;

And before the deadly fire of the enemy

Stood the man, stood the man we hail tonight.

Stood the man — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

Like the everlasting courage of the Infantry

Was the last deed of Private Rodger Young.

4. On the island of New Georgia in the Solomons,

Stands a simple wooden cross alone to tell

That beneath the silent coral of the Solomons,

Sleeps a man, sleeps a man remembered well.

Sleeps a man — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

In the everlasting spirit of the Infantry

Breathes the spirit of Private Rodger Young.

5. No, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry,

No, they've got no use for praises loudly sung,

But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry

Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.

Shines the name — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

To the everlasting glory of the Infantry

Lives the story of Private Rodger Young.