Where does the "Charge" song originally come from?

Forums: Sports, History, Music
Email this Topic • Print this Page

You know that little thing they play at sporting events? That little "da da da DA da DA! CHARGE" thing? Where is that originally from? Does anyone know? Does it actually come from some army or war-type situation way back when in the long-gone past?

I think it does, but I don't have a clue how to find out about it.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 41,335 • Replies: 27

[+3] - rjsamp - 04/06/2010The 6 note call attributed to Tommy Walker and the USC Marching band were in the German Army Manual for WWI entitled No. 20 No. 2 Battery...

I have a feeling this one is too much a mystery even for the brilliant people of A2K to unlock.

0 Replies

Kicky, wasn't it the bugle tune that was actually used to signal a charge of your Cavalry? You know, John Wayne and all that?

I can only go by your very descriptive da da da etc.. but I've watched films such as "she wore a yellow ribbon", and am sure I've heard it in most of them.

0 Replies

When i saw your thread, the first thing which came to mind was "Dan Butterfield." Butterfield was a Federal General in the American Civil War, and his call for "retreat" (which means the end of the work day, and not "run away!") eventually was immortalized as "Taps," but was originally just called Dan Butterfield.

So, i did some poking around. I already knew that most units in the United States Army had distinctive bugle calls (the idea was that you would know the bugle calls of your own unit, and ignore those of other units--but it didn't work out that way), but i didn't know when they were standardized.

According to this page at the Federation of American Scientists, bugle calls in the United States Army were standardized in 1867, when General Emory Upton gave Major Truman Seymour of the Fifth United States Artillery the assignment to standardize bugle calls (which included charge). I think you'll find the page interesting, because bugle calls regulated a soldier's daily routine until quite recently. When i was in the army overseas, reveille and retreat were played on a PA system from a record at the beginning and the end of the work day, respectively. There are audio files on that page so that you can listen to the bugle calls.

0 Replies

Lord Ellpus wrote:

Kicky, wasn't it the bugle tune that was actually used to signal a charge of your Cavalry? You know, John Wayne and all that?

I can only go by your very descriptive da da da etc.. but I've watched films such as "she wore a yellow ribbon", and am sure I've heard it in most of them.

I'm no big John Wayne fan, but the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was a very technically accurate motion picture with regard to cavalry practice, and was beautifully filmed. That was the only one of John Ford's "cavalry trilogy" filmed in color. There is one scene in which they ride up out of Monument Valley, and a thunderstorm is just passing over the mesas in the valley--people who were there for the filming were sure the film for that day's shooting was ruined, and should be shot over (since they were in Arizona, they could not look at "daily rushes," the first prints made from the previous day's filming). But Ford was sure of his product, and it is the most breathtaking scene in the motion picture.

Yellow ribbon is significant, because it means the cavalry. When United States soldiers wore blue coats, the color of the facings on the collar and lapels, and piping on the pants identified the branch of service: infantry wore light blue, artillery wore red, the medical corps wore burgundy, and the cavalry wore yellow.

Round her neck, she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore if for her lover in the U.S. Cavalry . . .

Is one version of the song--and there are many. Indian activists, ever the masters of propaganda and sour grapes, claim it meant they were specifically going out to kill Indians. However, the United States Cavalry has worn yellow on their jacket facings and trouser pipings from the very beginning of the nation.

0 Replies

It is much older than that... it originated as the song Betty and Wilma used to sing before they went shopping......

0 Replies

Setanta wrote:

When i saw your thread, the first thing which came to mind was "Dan Butterfield." Butterfield was a Federal General in the American Civil War, and his call for "retreat" (which means the end of the work day, and not "run away!") eventually was immortalized as "Taps," but was originally just called Dan Butterfield.

So, i did some poking around. I already knew that most units in the United States Army had distinctive bugle calls (the idea was that you would know the bugle calls of your own unit, and ignore those of other units--but it didn't work out that way), but i didn't know when they were standardized.

According to this page at the Federation of American Scientists, bugle calls in the United States Army were standardized in 1867, when General Emory Upton gave Major Truman Seymour of the Fifth United States Artillery the assignment to standardize bugle calls (which included charge). I think you'll find the page interesting, because bugle calls regulated a soldier's daily routine until quite recently. When i was in the army overseas, reveille and retreat were played on a PA system from a record at the beginning and the end of the work day, respectively. There are audio files on that page so that you can listen to the bugle calls.

Thanks! Great info. At least I am in the right ballpark now. Unfortunately I just went through all those bugle calls, and the short five-note bugle call that I'm talking about isn't one of them. Maybe that "charge" bugle call on that page is only part of the actual call? Or maybe the one they play at the sporting events is just part of that call? But I don't hear it in there. It sounds close though. I also found another site where there were two wav files for "charge"--one for the union and one for the confederacy, but I couldn't get the damn things to work. It's gotta be one of those calls though, right? Hmmmm...trying to find this bugle call might just drive me insane. Either way, very interesting stuff. I didn't know there were so many different bugle calls.

0 Replies

Lord Ellpus wrote:

I can only go by your very descriptive da da da etc...

Yeah, I'm a real articulate guy, huh. Laughing

0 Replies

Kicky, i just checked their "wav" file--that's correct. Maybe you clicked on the wrong link. Go listen to it again, and if you still say that's not what they play at ballgames, i'll return to my fallback position, which is that you are seriously goofy.

0 Replies

Setanta wrote:

Kicky, i just checked their "wav" file--that's correct. Maybe you clicked on the wrong link. Go listen to it again, and if you still say that's not what they play at ballgames, i'll return to my fallback position, which is that you are seriously goofy.

seriously goofy.... I Like that... sorta like military intelligence or helpful government....

0 Replies

Setanta wrote:

Kicky, i just checked their "wav" file--that's correct. Maybe you clicked on the wrong link. Go listen to it again, and if you still say that's not what they play at ballgames, i'll return to my fallback position, which is that you are seriously goofy.

Yes, they do play that one at the ballgames, but I'm talking about the other one. You know, at a baseball game or a basketball game, it starts with the organ playing this build-up thing that's just slow and then gets gradually faster, and then at the end they play that "da da da DA da DAAAA" thing and everybody yells, "CHARGE!"

Damn, it is so hard to describe music! Confused

0 Replies

Set, like you, I love that film.

Most small English boys formed part of the 5th Cavalry at weekends in the "rec" (recreation ground).

Many's the hour I've spent searching for a stick that most resembled a rifle.

Da De Da De DA DA DA DA DAAAAAAAAAAA!

CHAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!

0 Replies

I think it's just a variation of "Charge" slowed to a point where there can be some interaction.

0 Replies

Okay, I have found a link to the organ version of the song. I doubt anybody really cares, but what the hell, at least now we'll all now what we're talking about.

Click on the word "Lyssna" under the big yellow 1/8th note.

http://www.ringsignaler.com/ringsignal_59171.html

0 Replies

Oh fer chrissake . . . that was no song, it's just something an organ player came up with once . . . sheesh . . . "Charge" at least was an honest-to-god bugle call . . .

0 Replies

wiki says

it's a bugle call.

Quote:

For example, the announcers often play a "charge" bugle call to accompany the home team entering the visitor's side of the court with possession of the ball.

funny, there was something on the CBC about this earlier this week. I wonder if I can find a transcript.

0 Replies

Re: History of "Charge" Song.
The "Charge" song that everyone associates with baseball games was created by Tommy Walker in 1946. Tommy Walker was a junior at USC . The USC football team was in need of a lift that season, so he wrote a six-note fanfare for the trumpet section: "Da da da DUT da DUH!" Trojan rooters then screamed, "Charge!"

The "Charge" song/chant became famous when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958 and began to use it.

1 Reply

Thank you, flyoxguy! I've been waiting for a year and a half for that answer!

0 Replies

The 6 note call attributed to Tommy Walker and the USC Marching band were in the German Army Manual for WWI entitled No. 20 No. 2 Battery

http://www.lovettartillery.com/WW1%20Era%20Grman%20Army%20Bugle%20Calls.html

0 Replies

The "charge" bugle call was used at the Penn State - Syracuse football game in 1959 at Beaver Stadium when one of the Penn State fans played it and the Blue Band picked it up, and the fans responded. Syracuse won 14-7.

0 Replies

Where does the "Charge" song originally come from?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know