If Your Dad Were a Prisoner of War

Annotation

The country pop song "If Your Dad Were a Prisoner of War" (Mallard Records Inc. # MR-4), by the The Truehart Kids, looked at the plight of the P.O.W.s and the impact it had on the families of the prisoners. It also leaned to the anti-war side of the debate, concluding with the line "pray for peace". The main narrator claimed to be a 9 year old girl, who told the listener that her father, captured in the war, "don't have much food to eat, sleeping on the floor". Meanwhile, her mother spoke a lot about him so that "we won't forget our dad". The young girl's 4 year old brother "wrote the North Vietnamese" asking for their father's release. In fact, the children narrating this record, Renee (11 years old), and Jeff (10 years old), were the two children of country singer Nelson Truehart, who released the Vietnam / William Calley song "Morning in My Lai" in 1971. At the time of this recording, they lived in Nashville, Tennessee. On 17 July 1971 Billboard ran the headline that "Nelson Truehart Gets P.O.W. Backing". The article went on to report that "Nelson Truehart...has recorded a prisoner-of-war song with the backing of military officials and a women's organisation. Truehart used his…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Children on Record

The country pop song "If Your Dad Were a Prisoner of War" (Mallard Records Inc. # MR-4), by the The Truehart Kids, looked at the plight of the P.O.W.s and the impact it had on the families of the prisoners. It also leaned to the anti-war side of the debate, concluding with the line "pray for peace". The main narrator claimed to be a 9 year old girl, who told the listener that her father, captured in the war, "don't have much food to eat, sleeping on the floor". Meanwhile, her mother spoke a lot about him so that "we won't forget our dad". The young girl's 4 year old brother "wrote the North Vietnamese" asking for their father's release. In fact, the actually children narrating this record, Renee (11 years old), and Jeff (10 years old), were the two children of country singer Nelson Truehart, who released the Vietnam / William Calley song "Morning in My Lai" in 1971. At the time of this recording, they lived in Nashville, Tennessee. On 17 July 1971 Billboard ran the headline that "Nelson Truehart Gets P.O.W. Backing". The article went on to report that "Nelson Truehart...has recorded a prisoner-of-war song with the backing of military officials and a women's organisation. Truehart…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

The Truehart Kids' "If Your Dad Were A Prisoner Of War" (Mallard Records MR-4, 1971; produced by Guy Drake; Big Country Boy Music / Yall Rite Music; pressed by Southern Plastics) is explicitly identified on Discogs as recorded by THE CHILDREN OF NELSON TRUEHART - the artist at master row 3493 ("Morning In My Lai", MGM K-14254, also 1971). The father's spoken-word My Lai piece and the children's POW single form a linked family pair, both from 1971. No further biography of the family was found. [Source: Discogs artist-relationship note]

Themes

P.O.W. · Anti-War · Child

In collections

Children on Record · P.O.W. / M.I.A. Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs