"America, Here's My Boy" was one of the most popular songs in the United States in 1917. The lyrics were by Andrew B. Sterling and the music by Arthur Lange; the publisher was the Joe Morris Music Co. of New York City. Written at the peak of the preparedness movement and copyrighted on February 16, 1917, it was widely regarded as a reply to "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier," the pro-neutrality hit published two years before.See, for example, After the country entered the war it became a pervasive expression of commitment, with many performances by amateurs in venues from minstrel shows to benefit concerts.For an example of minstrel shows, see For a benefit concert, see "The Week's Events," The New York Times. 29 July 1917. It was a favorite of the troops at training camps, and in October it was sung to Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy, by 12,000 sailors at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station."Daniels Sounds Need of World's Greatest Navy". The Chicago Daily Tribune, 23 October 1917, p. 3.
Morris issued the first printing in February, with a cover designed by André De Takacs that billed the song as "The sentiment of every American mother." Over the next nine months eight more printings were issued; arrangements for band, orchestra, and even concertina appeared; and a version in translation was issued in Denmark., for concertina, arr. Henry Silberhorn. trans. Alfred Kjerulf (Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen). Aggressive advertising followed the song's introduction in vaudeville by Conroy and O'Donnell at the Prospect Theatre, Brooklyn, on March 5, 1917. Advertisement, Retrieved 25 August 2016. It was quickly taken up by other entertainers, including headliners like Elsie Janis; in an arrangement for band it was widely played by John Philip Sousa. August 3, 1917, p. 17. "Navy Band Causes Audience to Sing". The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1917, p. 2 It appeared on at least nine piano rolls and over ten records, the first and most successful of which was by the Peerless Quartet, made on February 21, 1917, and released on Victor 18256. In the summer of 1917, records released by Victor, Edison, Pathé, and Emerson all appeared on the Chicago Tribune'''s lists of "Three Best Sellers"."Three Best Sellers in Music". The Chicago Daily Tribune: May 20, 1917, p. C6; August 12, 1920, p. C2; September 9, 1917, p. C2; October 7, 1917, p. C2.
Lange's music is a brisk march song, but with a verse in the parallel minor key that opens with a quotation of "Yankee Doodle." Sterling's lyrics adopt the structure of "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier," with a descriptive verse followed by a refrain in which the mother speaks with her own voice:
Even though the song's popularity had diminished by the summer of 1918, the title, the music, and the lyrics were remembered in wartime plays like For Freedom and Mrs. Tubbs Does Her Bit and in postwar stories like Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews' Yellow Butterflies.Crandall, Irene Jean. For Freedom. New York: Samuel French, 1918. Hare, Walter Ben. Mrs. Tubbs Does Her Bit. Chicago: T. S. Denison & Company, 1918. Andrews, Mary Raymond Shipman. Yellow Butterflies. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922. Retrieved 25 August 2016. More recently it has been performed by barbershop quartets and by singers like Tiny Tim. In 2012 American songwriter Beck used the song's title for a lament that is almost the opposite of the World War I title and is included in his Song Reader'' project.1968 International Barbershop Chorus Winners. New York: Decca, 1969. Tiny Tim. Unplugged. Birmingham, AL: Tomanna CD 51295, 1996. "Beck on his Song Reader". The Guardian, 26 November 2012.
References
External links The sheet music: the first printing and copyright deposit. The sheet music: the second printing. The sheet music: the third printing. The sheet music: the fourth printing. The sheet music: the fifth printing. The sheet music: the sixth printing, issued after April 10, 1917. The sheet music: the seventh printing, issued after June 18, 1917. The sheet music: the eighth printing, issued after August 1, 1917. The sheet music: the ninth printing, issued after October 13, 1917. A recording by the Peerless Quartet (Victor 18256-A, matrix B-19304, take 1, recorded February 21, 1917). A recording by the Victor Military Band (Victor 35629-A, matrix C-19368, take 5, recorded April 26, 1917). A recording by George Wilton Ballard (Edison Blue Amberol 3239, Edison record 5514, released August 1918). A synthesized MP3 together with the sheet music, digitized from the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.