Enrico Caruso 'Over There' 1917 78 rpm

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns of WW1 fell silent. On this Remembrance Day I pay tribute with this well known marching song of the time.
In 1917 George M Cohan wrote this patriotic song to encourage American's to enlist to fight the German threat in Europe.
The great Enrico Caruso was one of those that recorded the song, singing the first verse in English and the second in French. His English and probably his French is very affected by his heavy Italian accent.
This is a 1924 issue, I'm not sure if it was originally released in the UK in 1917.

Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run,
On the run, on the run.
Hear them calling, you and me,
Every son of liberty.
Hurry right away,
No delay, go today,
Make your daddy glad
To have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy's in line.

Chorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there -
That the Boys are coming,
The Boys are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over

2nd verse sung in French
Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Johnnie show the Hun
Who's a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly,
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit,
Show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks,
From the towns and the tanks.
Make your mother proud of you,
And the old Red, White and Blue.

Chorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there -
That the Boys are coming,
The Boys are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over.

[robertfletcher]

What a great record I never knew Caruso sang songs for the war effort. Caruso is rare anyway. Thanks for sharing.

[russellcandy]

What a wonderful record you played on this Veterans Day!! What a fantastic voice that man had!! Between my collection and Mom's I don't have any recordings of this wonderful singer.🤔. Thanks so much for sharing Mate!!!

[GramophonicReevolution]

Another excellent choice for today 😎🕊️ I can't help but hear "Go Compare" now thanks to those adverts 🤣

[K.Saksa]

Very interesting detail of the WW1 history 🤔

[tiga]

A fitting tribute & a great morale raiser in its day. Popular songs were often written to be undemanding of untrained voices so it seems odd that a megastar of Caruso's standing would be hired to sing such a song, or would even agree to do so. That said, it gives listeners a chance to hear the charm of his strong Italian accent. I marked Remembrance day with two contrasting postings. 'Only One Of The Toys' deals with the harsh realities of war, whereas 'Come & Be A Soldier' is a highly sanitised & jingoistic recruiting song. Both are from WW1 & the gramophone on which they are played was inherited from a veteran of that war.

[martincook]

The Correct date off this Recording is Thursday July 11th 1918 Because the Recording was first Reissued in 1956 on a His Master's Voice LP Record called The art of Caruso Volume three Record Number CSLP-512 in the Golden Treasury of Immortal Performances and four Months later at 11am with the Sighning of the Armistice by Germany the first World War was Over and I know that an Artist called Billy Murray also Recorded this Recruiting Song but I Prefer the Enrico Caruso Version as its a far better Version and Recording and the Reissue of this 1918 Recording is a Straight Transfer from a 78rpm Record to tape and from tape to Vinyl and even the Record label was Copied to look like an old 78rpm Record on a white label and there is another Recording of the Tchaikovsky B flat Minor Piano Concerto Reissued in the Same Serious Played by Vladimir Horowits and the NBC Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Arturo Toscanini Recorded on Tuesday May 6th 1941 as well as all the four Rachmaninov Piano Concerto's all with Sergio Rachmaninov at the Piano and all Recorded Between Wednesday and Saturday 10th and 13th of April 1929 and Saturday December 20th 1941