Search For An Official Song
As the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard had already adopted official songs, the Army was eager to find a song of its own. In 1948, the Army conducted a contest to find an official song (Tom Lehrer claims to have submitted "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier" in this contest), but no entry received much popular support. In 1952, Secretary of the Army Frank Pace asked the music industry to submit songs and received over 800 submissions. "The Army's Always There" by Sam Stept won the contest, and an Army band performed it at President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inaugural parade on January 20, 1953. However, many thought that the tune was too similar to "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," so the army decided to keep Gruber's melody from the "Caisson Song" but with new lyrics. A submission of lyrics by Harold W. Arberg, a music advisor to the Adjutant General, was accepted. Secretary of the Army Wilber Marion Brucker dedicated the music on Veterans Day, November 11, 1956. The song is played at the conclusion of most U.S. Army ceremonies, and all soldiers are expected to stand at attention and sing. When more than one service song is played, they are played in the order specified by Department of Defense directive: army, marine corps, navy, air force, and coast guard.
Read more about this topic: The Army Goes Rolling Along
Famous quotes containing the words search for, search, official and/or song:
“Adolescents are travelers, far from home with no native land, neither children nor adults. They are jet-setters who fly from one country to another with amazing speed. Sometimes they are four years old, an hour later they are twenty-five. They don’t really fit anywhere. There’s a yearning for place, a search for solid ground.”
—Mary Pipher (20th century)
“Let the maiden, with erect soul, walk serenely on her way, accept the hint of each new experience, search in turn all the objects that solicit her eye, that she may learn the power and charm of her new-born being, which is the kindling of a new dawn in the recesses of space.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The honor my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for the statement of truth and the performance of duty; nor can I give any explanation of my official acts except such as is due to integrity and justice and consistent with the principles on which our institutions have been framed.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.”
—Bible: Hebrew Song of Solomon, 7:4.