I'm Gonna Pin My Medal on the Girl I Left Behind 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 ...

era song about a soldier named Johnny dreaming of coming home and giving his medal to his sweetheart. The song was first featured in

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Ai ...

of 1918. It reached the top 20 in August 1918 and climbed even higher to number 14 in September 1918. It was written and composed by

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russ ...

, produced by Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., and recorded by the

Peerless Quartet The Peerless Quartet was an American vocal group that recorded in the early years of the twentieth century. They formed to record for Columbia Records, where they were credited as the Columbia Quartet or Columbia Male Quartet. From about 1907, wh ...

. The song is listed as part of the

US Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library i ...

Recorded Sound Research Center (16,626), the National Jukebox (16,441) and the Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress (6,098) Per the lyrics, the soldier believes that his sweetheart has endured greater difficulties during the war than he has and wants to giver her his medal because he thinks she deserves it more than he does. Ann Ommen van der Merwe notes that the song shows the highly visible roles that American women took during World War I and that, while praise for women was not unusual in Ziegfeld Follies, praise for something other than beauty was new. She goes on to speculate that the medal may have been a metaphor for the right to vote, considering it "unlikely but not impossible" that this was Berlin's intent.

References

{{authority control 1918 songs Songs written by Irving Berlin