Back The Ballad of the Green Berets German Balada de los boinas verdes Spanish Ballad of the Green Berets French הבלדה על הכומתות הירוקות HE Ballad of the Green Berets Italian グリーン・ベレーのバラード Japanese Ballad of the Green Berets Dutch Ballad of the Green Berets Russian Ballad of the Green Berets Swedish Ballad of the Green Berets Ukrainian
| "The Ballad of the Green Berets" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 album cover | ||||
| Single by Barry Sadler | ||||
| from the album Ballads of the Green Berets | ||||
| B-side | "Letter from Vietnam" | |||
| Released | January 1966 | |||
| Recorded | December 18, 1965 | |||
| Studio | RCA Victor, New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:27 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Andy Wiswell[2] | |||
| Barry Sadler singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"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.[3]
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.[4] One verse mentioned Gabriel by name, but it was not used in the recorded version.[5]
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.[6] 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.
- ^ Molanphy, Chris (December 16, 2022). "Hits of the Year Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
- ^ "SSgt. Barry Sadler* - The Ballad Of The Green Berets". Discogs. January 1966.
- ^ "'Ballad of the Green Berets' singer's biographer talks about Barry Sadler's meteoric rise, murder charge, violent death". Stars and Stripes.
- ^ Mizutani, Ron (May 18, 2010). "First Native Hawaiian Killed in Vietnam Conflict Honored". KHON2.com. KHON-TV. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- ^ I'm a Lucky One by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler (Macmillan 1967, pp. 80–81)
- ^ Leepson, Mark (2017). Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. Guilford, Connecticut, US: Stackpole. p. 63.