Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition

DESCRIPTION: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition (x3), And we'll all stay free." The singer describes the mission he and his fellow soldiers are on and the dangers they face, but clearly expects to succeed
AUTHOR: Frank Loesser
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 30-31, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24982
NOTES [160 words]: The story of this is that, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a chaplain was asked to say a prayer and came out with "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" so he could man an anti-aircraft gun. Wikipedia has a whole entry on the song and the remark, none of which I find particularly convincing. But the tale inspired Frank Loesser to write a song, and Loesser being Loesser (he was, among other things, was responsible for the music of "Guys and Dolls," the most popular musical of the classic type in Broadway history), it was popular enough to apparently go into tradition in a small way.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 462, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in 1942, peaking at #2 in November 1942 (#1 for the year being Eddie Seiler, Sol Marcus, and Bennie Benjamin's "When the Lights Go On Again"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk030

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