Please Uncle Sam (Send Back My Man)
1966 · Volt 45-142 · USA
- Artist
- The Charmels
- Title
- Please Uncle Sam (Send Back My Man)
- Release
- Please Uncle Sam / Something Sweet About My Baby
- Year
- 1966
- Label
- Volt # 45-142
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- David Porter/Isaac Hayes
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
The Charmels - a US soul group formed in 1966 (possibly based in Memphis?), signed to the label Volt Records (# 45-142), an R & B subsidiary of Stax Records founded by Jim Stewart. It featured the four female vocalists Barbara McCoy, Mary Hunt, Mildred Pratchett, Eula Jean Rivers. Two of whom, Mary Hunt and Mildred Pratchett, previously sang in the mid-60s groups The Tonettes & the The Dixiebelles. In the song "Please Uncle Sam (Send Back My Man)", written by ..., the narrator pleads with the US government to send her man back from war, as she is very lonely and all the couple's "sweet days are gone".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Dear Uncle Sam, it's going to be cold this winter / I have no arms to keep me warm / All I have are memories of summer / And all those sweet days are gone / If you knew how much he meant to me... / Please send back my man, Uncle Sam / No need to sit by the telephone / Because it does not ring for me anymore... / I can't stand to hear our favourite song / The one we love to hear / The only thing that keeps spinning in my head / Don't worry baby, I still love you / I'll be back in a year
Notes
Volt 45-142 (VLT-11157-BW), "Plug Side", vocal, black-and-white label, "Distributed by Atco Records"; "Please Uncle Sam (Send Back My Man)" (Hayes - Porter), 2:30, Pub. East, BMI. In an Atlantic-Atco company sleeve headed "Distributed by the Atlantic-Atco Group". [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
The Charmels were a Memphis, Tennessee all-female vocal group - Mary Hunt, Mildred Pratcher, Eula Jean Rivers and Barbara McCoy - formed out of the earlier Tonettes, recording for Stax's Volt subsidiary from 1966 to 1968 with Isaac Hayes and David Porter writing and producing. "Please Uncle Sam (Send Back My Man)" b/w "Something Sweet About My Baby" (both Hayes-Porter songs) was issued in 1966 as Volt 45-142. None of their four singles charted; the group is now best known because Wu-Tang Clan sampled their "As Long As I've Got You" in 1994. [Source: Stax Records official site; Discogs]
Themes
In collections
US Domestic Perspective Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs