I’ve loved this song since I was a kid in New Jersey in 1962 when we sang it in the auditorium every morning before school started. We sang some other patriotic songs, but this one was everybody’s favorite. I’ve always remembered it but couldn’t find any information on the Internet besides one other YouTube page and the lyrics on a kids music site. A commenter on my YouTube page said John Philip Sousa wrote it, but I couldn’t find any information to verify that.

I did a clawhammer backup for the singing, but the easy chords change quickly, so feel free to slow it down and strum any way you like. It sounds good either way.

If you’d like to learn the clawhammer technique that I used, check out my Clawhammer Tutorial.