For Your Boy and My Boy

"For Your Boy and My Boy"
Song
Published 1918
Composer Egbert Van Alstyne
Lyricist Gus Kahn
Performed by

Al Jolson

The Peerless Quartet

For Your Boy and My Boy is a 1918 song composed by Egbert Van Alstyne, with lyrics written by Gus Kahn and published by Jerome H. Remick & Co. The song was originally performed by Al Jolson[1] but would later go on to reach No. 4 on the top 100 US songs of 1918 with a cover by the Peerless Quartet.[2]

Cover art and analysis

The cover illustration features a soldier carrying a bayonet, with a grenade in his hand standing near a German trench ready to throw the grenade at the German soldiers.[3] A later cover features a soldier playing the bugle with "Lady Liberty" standing with her hands on his shoulders.[3]

"For Your Boy and My Boy" was originally written for a Liberty Loan drive which looked to sell bonds in order to support the allied cause during World War I. It calls upon the patriotic duty of citizens to help out the soldiers over seas by buying bonds and funding the war effort. The chorus line "Ev'ry bond that we are buying will help the boys to cross the Rhine. Buy bonds, buy bonds, for your boy and mine," is repeated throughout the song to emphasize the importance of buying bonds.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Music Trades" 56. Music Trades Corporation. 1918. p. 119.
  2. ↑ "For Your Boy and My Boy". MusicVF.com. VF Entertainment. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Parker, Bernard S. (2007). World War I Sheet Music 1. McFarland. p. 164. ISBN 0786427981. OCLC 0786427981.

External links

Further reading