back then
Illustration by Mike McKinney
Peace song goes awry
by Larry Chabot e’ve always had songs associated with our country’s wars. During the Civil War, it was “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” for World War I, the country sang “Over There,” while World War II produced thousands to choose from— “We’ll Meet Again” being one of the best and saddest. During the Cold War, the long and edgy standoff between the United States and USSR, a song of peace morphed into one of the most popular Christmas songs ever. The peace piece spiraled up the wrong charts, as it begat hundreds of artist versions and sold tens of million of copies. The wayward song is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” with these famous opening lines:
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Marquette Monthly
December 2021
Said the night wind to the little lamb, Do you see what I see? Way up in the sky, little lamb, Do you see what I see… Do you hear what I hear? How did this happen? In New York, Noel Regney and his wife Gloria Shayne Baker were struggling with a holiday song without enthusiasm, until a scene witnessed by Regney got them to thinking about the Cold War and how a peace song was suggested by a scene that Regney observed on the streets of the city: “I saw two mothers with their babies in strollers. The babies were looking at each other and smiling. A glimpse of these babies filled Regney’s heart with poetry, reminding him of newborn lambs. So the song’s
