Lyr Add: This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (Berlin)

Subject: Lyr Add: THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES (Berlin)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Aug 13 - 01:59 PM

THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES
(Irving Berlin, 1942)

We all have been selected from city and from farm
They asked us lots of questions, they jabbed us in the arm
We stood there at attention, our faces turning red
The sergeant looked us over and this is what he said:

This is the Army, Mister Jones
No private rooms or telephones
You had your breakfast in bed before
But you won't have it there any more.

This is the Army, Mister Green
We like the barracks nice and clean
You had a housemaid to clean your floor
But she won't help you out any more.

Do what the buglers command-
They're in the Army and not in a band-

This is the Army, Mister Brown
You and your baby went to town
She had you worried but this is war
And she won't worry you any more.

Above from copyist's MS. copy, Library of Congress, gift of Berlin family.

Alternate introductory verse from sheet music:

A bunch of frightened rookies were list'ning, filled with awe
They listened while a sergeant was laying down the law
They stood there at attention, their faces turning red
The sergeant looked them over, and this is what he said:

From "This Is The Army," all-soldier review, opened July 4, 1942, NYC.

The film raised $10 million for the Emergency Relief Fund. Irving Berlin donated all profits from the sheet music sales to the war effort.
The show toured the major theaters of war.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (Berlin)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Aug 13 - 02:51 PM

From the stage revue? not specified.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOrkXfyfsl
Strong chorus and orchestra.

From the film:
watch?v=njMzqf6b4il
(Over-produced)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (Berlin)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Aug 13 - 11:27 PM

I posted these lyrics—most of them anyway—in the thread WWII songs, with an editorial comment that I think deserves to be repeated here:

I am a bit disturbed by the implications of Chorus 3: Being in the army is a convenient way to abandon a pregnant girlfriend?

Subject: ADD: That's What the Well-Dressed Man In Harlem...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Aug 13 - 02:10 AM

Here's another song from the 1942 stage revue, This Is the Arm.

THAT'S WHAT THE WELL-DRESSED MAN IN HARLEM WILL WEAR
(Irving Berlin)

VERSE
There's a change in fashion that shows
In those Lennox Avenue clothes:
Mister Dude has disappeared with his flashy tie;
You'll see in the Harlem Esquire
What the well-dressed man will desire
When he's struttin' down the street with his sweetie-pie.

CHORUS
Suntan shade of cream
Or an olive-drab color scheme—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
Dressed up in O.D.s
With a tin hat for overseas—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
Top hat, white tie and tails no more;
They've been put away till after the war.
If you want to know,
Take a look at Brown Bomber Joe—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.

From The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, edited by Roibert Kimball and Linda Emmet (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001), page 361

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (Berlin)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 13 - 01:33 PM

Wikipedia has a list of Irving Berlin songs. It is incomplete (I impatiently wait for my copy of the Kimball "Complete Lyrics).

The first military revue written by Irving Berlin was "Yip, Yip, Yaphank," WW1. It had the song "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning."
Berlin wrote the music for "God Bless America" for this show, but I understand that it was incompletely used at the time. I stand to be corrected on this.