In the Land O' Yamo Yamo is a
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
song written in 1917.
Joe McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most vis ...
wrote the lyrics and Fred Fisher composed the music. McCarthy & Fisher, Inc. produced the song in
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
. On the cover of the sheet music is a man playing the guitar as a woman dances in the foreground.
The lyrics describe a place that is not found on the map, but resembles "Old
Napoli
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
," referring to a city in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. "Yamo Yamo" is an English transliteration of the Neapolitan phrase "iammo, iammo", a dialectal reduction of "andiamo, andiamo" ("let's go, let's go") and the beginning of the chorus of the worldwide popular Italian song
"Funiculi Funicula", which is mentioned in "Yamo Yamo"'s subtitle. "Yamo Yamo" is illustrated in the chorus as a place where the "good fellows are" and where "you can never hear them talk about the war."
The song reached number two on the US song charts in May 1918.
References
1917 songs
Songs of World War I
Songs with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy (lyricist)
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