Red Sovine

Vietnam Deck Of Cards

1967 · Starday SLP 414 · USA

Artist
Red Sovine
Title
Vietnam Deck Of Cards
Release
Phantom 309
Year
1967
Label
Starday # SLP 414
Format
LP · Album
Language
English
Country
USA
Genre
Country · Country
Primary theme
US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs

Annotation

Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine, a country singer who often played truck driving songs, narrated the track "Vietnam Deck Of Cards" (Starday Records # SLP 414), in which a man told a story about a soldier disciplined for playing with a deck of cards in church, having "arrived in a town called Saigon" on a Sunday. However, the soldier explained that the cards represented stories from the bible, therefore representing his religious faith. At the end of the song the narrator revealed that "friends, this story is true, because my son was that soldier". The idea for this song originally came from T. Texas Tyler who released "Deck of Cards" (4 Star Records # 1228) in 1948 about a World World Two soldier. In the same year Tex Ritter recorded a cover of this - "Deck of Cards" (Capitol Americana # 40114). Then Red River Dave produced a re-worked version for the Korean War in 1953 - "Red Deck of Cards" (TNT # TNT 1003). (1) Dozens of covers of these various versions have since been recorded. In 1991 Bill Anderson re-wrote it for the 1st Gulf War - "Deck of Cards" (Curb Records # 76855)."Deck of Card" versions (Vietnam era): Bill Wright, Sr. - "The Deck of Card" (Decca Records # 31851) Bill Cook…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

American country singer, born 7 July 1917 in Charleston, West Virginia ('Giant of the Hill'); died 4 April 1980 in Nashville, Tennessee. [Source: Wikipedia]

In collections

US Combat Perspective Songs