I Won't Be Home This Christmas

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

Lyrics

English: I won't be home this Christmas, I'll be so far away but / With this load I'm sending you my love on Christmas day / Yes Christmas here is different / The jungle all around / I sit here in my foxhole and hear the war sounds / We made a little Christmas tree and decorated it with bits of spring... / And tiny silver bells / Just remember me this season and all my love is true / And if god is good next Christmas I will be home with you / Your picture I put next to my heart and with it I'll never part / So across the sea a stretch my hand / Merry Christmas, merry Christmas from Vietnam

Notes

RCA Victor 47-9008, 45 RPM, matrix TPKM-6672, 2:14; "I Won't Be Home This Christmas" (Leonard Whitcup–Barry Sadler), Music, Music, Music, Inc., ASCAP; arranged and conducted by Sid Bass, producer Andy Wiswell. The white promotional label is marked "Plug Side" and "Not for Sale" (made in U.S.A.); the red stock label is "Made in Canada by RCA Victor Company, Ltd." The picture sleeve front shows a photograph of "S/Sgt. Barry Sadler" in Special Forces beret and uniform under the RCA Victor "His Master's Voice" logo. The back, headed Christmas "Special", lists 47-9008 "I Won't Be Home This Christmas" (2:14) and "A Woman Is a Weepin' Willow Tree" (2:28), with notes in English and French describing the A-side as the ballad of a soldier writing a letter to his family, sung by Sadler "who has lived the experience", and the backer as folksy. [From the record sleeve and labels]

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

In collections

Christmas Songs · US Combat Perspective Songs [War Years] · US Military & Veteran Songs