Who is the only US Army veteran to top the best-selling singles of the year list?
One of the great things about music, which has ensured it remains incredibly popular throughout the years, is the fact that people can express themselves using the art form. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are; you can use music as an effective way to voice those opinions and get them through to other like-minded people. This is why the political songs of artists like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and John Lennon remain so prevalent.
The Vietnam War was an incredibly controversial moment in history. There were a number of reasons why people didn’t look upon the war very favourably, but some of the main criticisms were the high cost and the fact that there was no clear objective in place. Some of the tactics used by the forces were viewed as controversial, too. Subsequently, many people spoke out against the war, especially musicians.
One of the most famous songs written in protest of the war in Vietnam was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’. The song is about a soldier who has been betrayed by his country. Springsteen said the song was inspired by an encounter with Ron Kovic, who was in a wheelchair due to injuries sustained in Vietnam. Bruce Springsteen went with Kovic to a veterans centre.
“I’m usually pretty easy with people, but once we were at the centre, I didn’t know how to respond to what I was seeing,” said Springsteen, reflecting on the visit. “Talking about my own life to these guys seemed frivolous. There was homelessness and drug problems and post-traumatic stress—guys my age dealing with life-changing physical injuries.”
Springsteen wasn’t the only person who wrote anti-Vietnam songs. There were a lot of artists who did, and it became a large part of the creative world for some time. Of course, where there is one opinion, there will always be a counter, and in the fact of all these songs that were anti-Vietnam, there were also tracks which supported the war and the people fighting it.
Not many of these songs did well; however, one track exceeded everyone’s expectations. It remains one of the only pro-Vietnam songs to perform well on the charts and is also the only song by a US Army veteran to top the best-selling singles of the year list.
So, who was the only army veteran to have a best-selling single?
‘The Ballad of the Green Berets’ was released in 1966 by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. It remains one of the only songs that was in favour of the Vietnam War to perform well on the charts. This was an anomaly, but people favouring the war managed to get behind it, finding a sense of patriotism in the lyrics.
Sadler initially began writing the song when he was training to be a Special Forces medic. He wasn’t alone with the credits for the song as Robin Moore, an author who wrote the book The Green Berets, also helped him put the lyrics together. The track was recorded and produced at a rudimentary recording studio in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While the song may not be considered a hit today, it was inescapable at the time, as people around the country were listening to what would now be considered a relatively controversial track.
