Mitch Miller - When Johnny Comes Marching Home (HD)

When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1898)
"Although this song was born during the Civil War, it was not until the Spanish-American War (1898) that it became a national hit. Long before the Civil War this melody (almost note for note) was a touching old Irish streetsong, "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," which described a young girl seeing her hopelessly maimed sweetheart for the first time upon his return from the war.

The words of this song were written in 1863 by America's great Irish bandmaster (with General Nathaniel Banks' Army) Patrick S. Gilmore, under the pseudonym Louis Lambert. Gilmore had expected the Civil War to end much earlier than it actually did, and he wrote this song in preparation for a mammoth Peace Jubilee which he finally did give in Boston, 1869.

This jubilee, by the way, used a 1000 piece orchestra and 10,000 voices. The song was well received both at this jubilee and also the succeeding one in 1872, but it was not until the time of William McKinley's Presidency and the Spanish-American War that the song actually reached the lips of the people. From that time on this song grew to become one of our greatest. It was abundantly used during both World Wars and in between them.

Today "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is a sort of national institution. A 1942 movie carried its title, and it is played by brass bands, orchestras, school bands, and jazz bands. It is sung in barrooms and supper clubs, at outings, nightclubs, concerts, and in the home. It is performed by big-voiced baritones and small-voiced folk singers. It is in song books, and on radio and television. This is a song America loves and will always remember."
~The American Song Treasury by Theodore Raph

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