Credited on the record as Earline Head with Little Rhonda and The Flint River Boys.
My Daddy Is a Soldier
Master M-1086 · USA
- Artist
- Earline Head & Little Rhonda
- Credited on the record as
- Earline Head with Little Rhonda and The Flint River Boys
- Title
- My Daddy Is a Soldier
- Release
- Whispering Breeze / My Daddy Is a Soldier
- Label
- Master # M-1086
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Clayton Head
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation — Children on Record
The song "My Daddy Is a Soldier" (Master Records # M-1086) featured a collaboration between country singer Earline Head and the child Little Rhonda, maybe six years old. It started with the young girl telling the listener that her father "is a soldier, fighting across the sea". She expressed some minor patriotic sentiments: "he's fighting for our country, but most of all for me". However, her mother entered the narration, saying that she had received a "message from Uncle Sam" notifying her of the father's death. The mother did not have the heart to tell the child. Written by Clayton Head, and issued in Stone Mountain, Georgia. According to some sources, this may have been a record label dedicated to song-poems - song lyrics, sent to specialist publishing and recoding companies, usually in response to an advertisement, that have been set to music for a fee (around $200-400).1 Sources1Song Poem Music↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
The song "My Daddy Is a Soldier" (Master Records # M-1086) featured a collaboration between country singer Earline Head and the child Little Rhonda, maybe six years old. It started with the young girl telling the listener that her father "is a soldier, fighting across the sea". She expressed some minor patriotic sentiments: "he's fighting for our country, but most of all for me". However, her mother entered the narration, saying that she had received a "message from Uncle Sam" notifying her of the father's death. The mother did not have the heart to tell the child. Written by Clayton Head, and issued in Stone Mountain, Georgia. According to some sources, this may have been a record label dedicated to song-poems - song lyrics, sent to specialist publishing and recoding companies, usually in response to an advertisement, that have been set to music for a fee (around $200-400).1Sources1Song Poem Music↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: My daddy is a soldier, fighting across the sea / He's fighting for our country, but most of all for me / He said the day he left us he'd soon be home to stay / Me and mum are waiting for that happy day /Those are the words I hear her say while crying all alone / How can I tell my little girl her daddy won't come home /I just can't break her little heart, she loves her daddy so / As she talks I hold her close and pray... / Don't you see, if I tell her now about the message from Uncle Sam / How much grief is in my heart since I got the telegram / She'll only have to share the pain with me each night and day
Notes
Master Records, Box 725, Stone Mountain, GA; M-1086 (MR-10862); "My Daddy Is a Soldier" (Clayton Head), Jakmo Music, BMI, 2:36; Earline Head with Little Rhonda and The Flint River Boys. Purple and silver label. [From the record sleeve and labels]
Themes
In collections
Children on Record · Song Poems · US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs [War Years]