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WWII Music and Songs -
Music and Memories
WWII SONGS,
I wrote a story about 10 years ago about my favorite songs of WWII. It’s a little too long to post, so I will just mention a few highlights.
1. King of Siam
In Infantry OCS, during the final weeks, my floor of the barracks had been winnowed down through washouts, from about 30 men to about 15. It looked as though we were going to “make it†and our enthusiasm knew no bounds! One of the survivors had a radio which he played in the morning as we were getting ready for the first formation. They always played “King of Siam†and we would all join in on the chorus: “Oh I’m the king of Siam, yes I am! Oh yes I am! Oh yes I am! For I’m the King of Siam, yes I am! And we all thought we were. Figuratively, at least. We might have been less exuberant if we had known that 50% of us would not survive the War!
2. I’ve Got Sixpence
We sang this loudly while marching in cadence to and from our training area each day.
“I’ve got sixpence,
Jolly, Jolly sixpence.
I’ve got sixpence to last me all my life.
I’ve got sixpence to spend.
And sixpence to lend,
And sixpence to send home to my wife, poor wife,
No cares have I to grieve me, No pretty little girls to deceive me.
Oh HAPPY IS THE DAY WHEN THE ARMY GETS ITS PAY
And we go rolling, rolling home.â€
Our song leader was always Jack Everett, a Rutgers ROTC classmate and a born leader. Jack was later KIA in France when he stood up to accept the surrender of a group of Krauts carrying a white flag. A concealed Kraut shot him dead.
3. Paper Doll
“I’d like to buy a paper doll that I could call my own,
A doll that other fellows could not stealâ€
My first assignment was to the 13th Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg. It was a cadre only, with fillers to come over the next year to undergo unit training before going overseas. That being the case, my fiancee and I married and found a room on a nearby cotton farm. Along with my fellow company officers, we would go to a nearby road house in the evening to dance to the juke box music of “Paper Dollâ€. Those were some of the happiest days of my life. The division did stay at Fort Bragg for a year of training and then never saw combat. But after only 8 weeks of marriage, I was sent to Anzio as an infantry replacement 2nd Lt. and didn’t come home for 2 years. I can’t remember the rest of the words to the song, but years later when I wrote this story, my wife read it and then sat down with paper and pencil and wrote these words from memory.
“Paper Doll - I’m gonna buy a paper doll, that I can call my own. A doll that other fellows cannot steal, and then those flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes will have to flirt with dollies that are real. When I come home at night she will be waiting, she’ll be the truest doll in all this world. I’d rather have a paper doll to call my own, than have a fickle-minded real live girl.â€
4. The fourth song is “Lili Marleneâ€, a sentimental ballad sung by the German Africa Corps in North Africa and then brought to Sicily and Italy where the American 5th and British 8th Armies adopted it as their own.
“Underneath the lamp post, by the barracks gate,
Standing all alone every night you’ll see her wait.
She waits for a boy who marched away,
And tho’ he’s gone, she hears him say;
Oh promise you’ll be true
Fare thee well Lili Marlene,
Til I return to you,
Fare thee well Lili Marleneâ€
5. The fifth song is “She wore a yellow ribbonâ€.
“Around her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon,
She wore it in the springtime and in the month of May, - Hey, Hey!
She wore it for her lover who was far, far away.
Far away, far away,
She wore it for her lover who was far, far away.â€
Have you had enough? I have and I am going to bed.
Russ Cloer - 3_7_I_Recon
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