We'll Meet Again (1939 song)

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For other uses, see We'll Meet Again (disambiguation).

“We'll Meet Again”

Song by Vera Lynn
Released	1939
Length	3:01
Writer	Hughie Charles (lyrics)
Composer	Ross Parker (music)
Cover versions
The Byrds, The Turtles, Johnny Cash

"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song made famous by British singer Vera Lynn (#29 (US, 1954)) with music written by Ross Parker and words by Hughie Charles.

The song is one of the most famous songs of the Second World War era, and resonated with soldiers going off to fight and their families and sweethearts. The assertion that "we'll meet again" is optimistic, as many soldiers did not survive to see their loved ones again. Indeed, the meeting place at some unspecified time in the future would have been seen by many who lost loved ones to be heaven.

The song gave its name to the 1943 musical film We'll Meet Again in which Vera Lynn played the lead role. Lynn's recording is featured in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and was also used in the closing scenes of the 1986 BBC television serial The Singing Detective.

During the Cold War, Vera Lynn's recording was included in the package of music and programmes held in 20 underground radio stations of the BBC's Wartime Broadcasting Service (WTBS), designed to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a nuclear attack^[1].

[edit] In popular culture

Pink Floyd makes reference to this song and the performer in "Vera," a song from the Pink Floyd album The Wall: "Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?/Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?". A short clip of "We'll Meet Again" can be heard at the beginning of the first track on the Pink Floyd album Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81.

This song is regularly used in the English football league, and is often sung to teams getting relegated.

The American folk rock band The Byrds used the song as the closing track on their debut album Mr. Tambourine Man (1965).

Johnny Cash covered this song on the last album that was released when he was alive, his 2002 American IV: The Man Comes Around. It is the last track on the album.

The Turtles released a cover of this song as a single.

In 1972, P. J. Proby recorded a power-ballad rendition of the song. It was released by the EMI Group as Proby's last single for his recording contract that ran between 1961 and 1972. This version debuts on CD format in 2008 on Proby's 70th birthday CD Best Of The EMI Years 1961-1972.

The song was also featured in the 2006 film Severance, sung by Ed Harcourt.^[2]

After getting off The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in Walt Disney World, Florida, riders hear the song "We'll Meet Again" – an ironic and chilling notion getting off the ride. It is also played in the library waiting area and preview and can be heard if a rider listens closely after first entering the room.

The band Bomb the Music Industry!'s song "Future 86" is partly based on "We'll Meet Again."

In 2002 Peter Doherty and Carl Barat of The Libertines covered of "We'll Meet Again" as part of Radio 1's Live Lounge with Jo Whiley.

In 2004, the song can be heard in the film Hellboy directed by Guillermo del Toro

Barry Manilow did a cover of this song. It appears on his Live in Britain album.

The video game "Resistance - Fall of Man" features a reference to the song during the war against an invasion.

Episode 8 of the first season of Futurama, "A Big Piece of Garbage," uses the song during its closing credits, in reference to a giant piece of garbage launched into space, doomed to enter Earth's orbit some time in the future and destroy New New York.