Over There (George M. Cohan Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun, Take it on the run...." "Over there, over there, Send the word, send the word over there That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming... And we won't come back till its over, over there."
AUTHOR: George M. Cohan (source: Fuld)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: war patriotic travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 123-124, "Over There" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 167, "Over There" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 418-419, "Over There"
Roud #25459
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Over There" (Victor 18333, 1917)
Nora Bayes, "Over There" (Victor 45130, 1917)
Enrico Caruso, "Over There" (Victor 87294, 1918)
Peerless Quartet, "Over There" (Columbia A-2306, 1917)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Get Your Gun (I)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Yanks Are Coming Over (File: KSUC188A)
NOTES [261 words]: There is little evidence that this is traditional, but it was certainly popular. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 317, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1917, reaching the top of the charts in August of that year. The Nora Bayes recording was the most important of several recorded versions (her photo is on the William Jerome Publishing sheet music), including one by Enrico Caruso. Ironically, there does not seem to have been a George M. Cohan recording.
It was not so popular in Europe; Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver has a sarcastic parody verse ending, "And they won't get there till it's over, over there." This is understandable; although the Americans joined the Allies in 1917, they had no standing army and not much of a defense industry; even when the first few American divisions reached Europe, they had to get machine guns and artillery and aircraft from Britain or France.
When, in 1918, the Germans shipped troops from the Russian Front to participate in the great Ludendorff Offensives, it was the British and French who, at great cost in lives, were almost entirely responsible for holding them. The American did play a leading role in the counteroffensives which followed, which hastened the German surrender -- but the war clearly had to end anyway; both sides were going to pieces. If anything, the American participation just made the peace more punitive, thereby arguably helping to precipitate World War II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWRBW123

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography