"You're in the Army Now" also known as "We're in the Army Now" is an American song written in 1917 by Isham Jones. Lyrics were written by Tell Taylor and Ole Olsen.

In popular culture

The piece of music has appeared in several movies and cartoons about the US Army from ''

The Big Parade ''The Big Parade'' is a 1925 American silent war drama film directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Tom O'Brien, and Karl Dane. Written by World War I veteran, Laurence Stallings, the film is about ...

'' to ''

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy ...

'' to ''

The Draft Horse ''The Draft Horse'' is a Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on May 9, 1942. The title is a pun on draft horse and the draft (conscription). Plot A farm horse sees a poster that says the U.S ...

'' to '' Rio Grande'' with the lyrics providing titles for two 1941 army comedies ''

You're in the Army Now ''You're in the Army Now'' is a 1941 comedy film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Jimmy Durante, Phil Silvers, Jane Wyman, and Regis Toomey. It featured the longest kiss in film (lasting three minutes and five seconds), between Toomey and ...

'' and ''

You'll Never Get Rich ''You'll Never Get Rich'' is a 1941 Hollywood musical comedy film with a wartime theme directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, Cliff Nazarro, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The title stems f ...

''. The original title of the television series ''

The Phil Silvers Show ''The Phil Silvers Show'', originally titled ''You'll Never Get Rich'', is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-a ...

'' was ''You'll Never Get Rich''. The song is also referenced by

war poet A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

John Allan Wyeth in his

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

poetry collection ''This Man's Army: A War in Fifty-Odd Sonnets''. The collection recalls Wyeth's service with the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...

in France during the

First World War 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 ...

. Wyeth (2008), ''This Man's Army: A War in Fifty-Odd Sonnets'', pages xxxii, 13.

Lyrics

There are at least two versions of the lyrics with "You'll never get rich, you son of a bitch" often replaced with "You'll never get rich by digging a ditch".

References

Bibliography

*Herder, Ronald, ''500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics'', Dover Publications, 1998. *Smith, Kathleen E. R., ''God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War'', University Press of Kentucky, 2003. American patriotic songs American military marches Songs about the military 1917 songs Songs of World War I Songs with music by Isham Jones {{1910s-song-stub