Over There

The story

George M. Cohan, an American entertainer, playwright, songwriter, singer, dancer, director and producer, wrote "Over There" in April 1917. According to the Library of Congress he wrote it on his way to work on 7 April, the day after the United States abandoned its policy of non-intervention and joined the Allied Powers in the First World War. It was meant to rally American men to enlist in the American Expeditionary Forces and fight the Central Powers. Its opening verse is derived from Monroe Rosenfeld's song "Johnny, Get Your Gun" of 1886, and its rhythm is based on a three-note bugle call.

Cohan chose Nora Bayes to give the first performance in June 1917, but the Peerless Quartet recorded the song first, on 6 June, for Columbia Records; Bayes's recording followed on 13 July. Early tests with soldiers met an indifferent reception, but the public took to the song, and Billy Murray, the American Quartet and Arthur Fields recorded it too. President Woodrow Wilson called it "a genuine inspiration to all American manhood", and by the end of 1918 more than two million copies of the sheet music had been sold. In 1940 the United States Congress awarded Cohan a special medal for it, and Bayes's recording was entered in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

The song was revived during and after the Second World War. It was little used during the Vietnam War but came back into use after the September 11 attacks and through the war on terror. In June 2026 CBS News named it among 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years.

What it says

A patriotic, brisk and confident call to young American men to enlist and go to fight in the war in Europe.

The words