"The Ballad of the Green Berets" is a 1966 patriotic song in the ballad style about the United States Army Special Forces. Written and performed by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, it was one of the few popular songs of the Vietnam War years to cast the military in a positive light. Sadler's version became a major hit in January 1966, reaching No. 1 for five weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and four weeks on Cashbox. It was also a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on "Billboard"'s Easy Listening chart and No. 2 on "Billboard"'s Country survey.
Sadler began writing the song when he was training to be a Special Forces medic. The author Robin Moore, who wrote the book "The Green Berets", helped him write the lyrics and later sign a recording contract with RCA Records. The demo of the song was produced in a rudimentary recording studio at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the help of Gerry Gitell and LTG William P. Yarborough.
The lyrics were written, in part, in honor of U.S. Army Specialist 5 James Gabriel Jr., a Special Forces operator and the first native Hawaiian to die in Vietnam. Gabriel was killed by Viet Cong gunfire while on a training mission with the South Vietnamese Army on April 8, 1962. One verse mentioned Gabriel by name, but it was not used in the recorded version.
Sadler recorded the song and eleven other tunes with Sid Bass at RCA's 24th Street Studios in New York City on December 18, 1965. The song and album, "Ballads of the Green Berets", were released in January 1966. He performed the song on television on January 30, 1966, on "The Ed Sullivan Show", and on other TV shows including "The Hollywood Palace" and "The Jimmy Dean Show".
Popularity.
In the United States, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 in March 1966, staying at No. 1 for five weeks. It placed tenth on the year-end Hot 100 chart published by "Billboard" in December 1966. When "Billboard" later revised its year-end rankings for 1966, the song was re-ranked at No. 1; since then, "Billboard" has recognized "The Ballad of the Green Berets" as the top Hot 100 song of that year. On "Cash Box"'s 1966 year-end chart, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" tied for first with "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas. It was also the No. 21 song of the 1960s as ranked by Joel Whitburn. The single sold more than nine million copies; the album, more than two million.
"The Ballad of the Green Berets" has been one of the four primary marching tunes of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band since at least the 1980s.
In film.
The song is heard in a choral rendition by Ken Darby in the 1968 John Wayne film "The Green Berets", based on Robin Moore's book. The film's score was not released as an album until "Film Score Monthly" released it in 2005. A movie tie-in featuring artwork from the film and a cover version by Ennio Morricone was released in Europe, though the album's other tracks were from "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More". In "The Many Saints of Newark", while Dickie Moltisanti is driving over in his car to meet Harold McBrayer for the first time, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" is playing on the radio.
The cast of the 2018 movie "12 Strong" sing the tune as their Chinook helicopter takes off.
This song is featured in the 1979 film "More American Graffiti", during the first sequence of Terry the Toad's New Year's Eve in 1965 Vietnam.
The song is featured prominently as a prop (with French lyrics unrelated to the American lyrics), in the opening scene of the French-produced Netflix biopic miniseries about Bernard Tapie eponymously titled "Tapie".
Other versions derivatives.
Many other American recording artists did their own versions of the song ranging from Kate Smith and Duane Eddy to unknown artists singing on various drugstore records.
Many versions in other languages are rewritten to reference local units; these include:
References.
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