I Won't Be Home This Christmas
1966 · RCA Victor 47-9008 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Barry Sadler
- Title
- I Won't Be Home This Christmas
- Release
- I Won't Be Home This Christmas / A Woman Is a Weepin' Willow Tree
- Year
- 1966
- Label
- RCA Victor # 47-9008
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- Leonard Whitcup, Barry Sadler
- Genre
- Traditional Pop · Traditional Pop
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Barry Sadler - born in New Mexico (November 1940), he joined the US Air Force in 1957, and served in Vietnam with the 7th Special Force Group (the "Green Berets"), as a medic. Wounded in the Central Highlands southeast of Pleiku, he returned to the US. In 1966 he released the famous single The Ballad of the Green Berets (RCA Victor # 47-8739) which reached # 1 in the Billboard charts and stayed there for 5 weeks. The single, together with the album, sold over 9 million copies. He offered a military take on the Christmas song, in the track "I Won't Be Home This Christmas" (RCA Victor # 47-9008). The soldier told the listener that with "the jungle all around...I sit here in my foxhole". He missed his loved one, and sent her a message: "merry Christmas from Vietnam". He described how the soldiers made a Christmas tree and decorated it, with the sounds of war in the background.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Born Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA (1 November 1940). Died Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA (5 November 1989)
Themes
Christmas · Military · Soldier's Perspective · Foxhole · Combat · Religion