Vintage Audio - Goodbye Broadway, Hello France
Combining a traditional march with barbershop quartet singing, Goodbye Broadway, Hello France was a major U.S. wartime hit.
Penned in 1917 by C. Francis Reisner and Benny Davis with music by Billy Baskette, the song was introduced in the stage musical The Passing Show of 1917 at New York's Winter Garden. The song's sentiments are straightforward: no-nonsense patriotism, in common with most other songs of the wartime era.
The version of the song available using the player above was recorded in 1919 by the American Quartet (MP3 format 1,059kb).
Goodbye Broadway, Hello France
First Verse
Good-bye New York town, good-bye Miss Liberty,
Your light of freedom will guide us across the sea,
Ev'ry soldier's sweetheart biding good-bye,
Ev'ry soldier's mother drying her eye.
Cheer up we'll soon be there,
Singing this Yan-kee air:
Chorus
Good-bye Broadway, Hello France,
We're ten million strong,
Good-bye sweethearts, wives and mothers,
It won't take us long,
Don't you worry while we're there,
It's for you we're fighting too,
So Good-bye Broadway, Hello France,
We're going to square our debt to you.
Second Verse
Vive Pershing is the cry across the sea.
We're united in this fight for liberty.
France sent us a soldier, brave La Fayette
Whose deeds and fame we cannot forget.
Now that we have the chance
We'll pay our debt to France.
Chorus
Good-bye Broadway, Hello France,
We're ten million strong,
Good-bye sweethearts, wives and mothers,
It won't take us long,
Don't you worry while we're there,
It's you we're fighting for,
So Good-bye Broadway, Hello France,
We're going to help you win this war.
A Flechette was an anti-personnel dart dropped from an aircraft.
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