Credited on the record as Don Morrow (narrator).
The Men Who Wear the Green Berets
1966 · Leo the Lion Records CH-1029 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- Don Morrow
- Credited on the record as
- Don Morrow (narrator)
- Title
- The Men Who Wear the Green Berets
- Release
- The Green Berets: Their Story & Heritage (The United States Army Special Forces)
- Year
- 1966
- Label
- Leo the Lion Records # CH-1029
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Songwriter
- John Richards
- Genre
- Spoken Word · Spoken Word
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation — US Military & Veteran Songs
Recorded on 7 September 1966, in New York, on the MGM sub-label Leo the Lion Records (# CH-1029), this was certainly influenced by Sadler's hugely successful record, released back in January 1966. Aimed at children, this was a propaganda record.1 Largely spoken-word, the narrator Don Morrow, a TV announcer, recalled the history of the green berets.2 - this one seems to be a cross-over between commercial, patriotic release, and military involvement. At the end of the record Morrow talked specifically about Vietnam - a general gave out instructions to the newly qualified green berets after their intense training, justifying the US military presence in South Vietnam, and defending government policy: "all I’ll tell you now is the guerrillas are operating in the mountains throughout this whole country threatening to bring down this government, threatening everyone with loss of freedom , and our aid has been desperately called for". The record included two songs, on side-one "The Men Who Wear the Green Berets", and on side-two, the song "The A Team", which told of the heroic Green Berets who were fighting to "fan the fire of freedom's dream".Sources1The MGM Labels: 1961-1982 (Michel Ruppli, 1998)↩2Wikipedia: Don Morrow↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Leo the Lion Records (MGM) CH-1029, LP, 1966; children's dramatised history of the US Army Special Forces, with "The Men Who Wear the Green Berets" on the cover and labels; sides: The Minute Men; Major Robert Rogers; Ranger Marion, The Swamp Fox; Daniel Boone; Andrew Jackson and the Kentucky Backwoodsmen; Frontier Scouts; Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. Narrator Don Morrow; cast Gilbert Mack, Jim Nichols, Lan Ricks, Peter Fernandez; written by John Richards; produced and directed by Herb Galewitz. [From Discogs]
Themes
Green Beret · Military · Patriotic · Child