Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ~ Isaiah 7:14
Christmas Song Lyrics Compiled by Charles P. Scott
Snoopy vs the Red Baron
Song by the Royal Guardsmen
Not a Christmas Song, but it is fun all the same.
Lyrics
After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men had never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird
Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richtofin was his name
Eighty men tried, and eighty men died
Now they're buried together on the countryside
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany
In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-looking dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down--"Curses, foiled again!"
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany
Now, Snoopy had sworn that he'd get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight
That Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He'd tried everything, but he'd run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once, and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany
About This Song
"Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida-based pop group The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records.
In 1962, the song began simply as "The Red Baron"; songwriter Dick Holler patterned it after the history-minded hits of Johnny Horton (such as "Sink the Bismark" and "The Battle of New Orleans"), and told of the real-life air battles against the Red Baron. As Holler said later, "We went down to Cosimo’s in New Orleans and recorded it, and spent all day putting in airplane sounds and machine gun bullets and took it around to every major label. Nobody wanted to put it out, so it sat on the shelf for three years."
Four years later, producer Phil Gernhard saw that the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz was featuring a recurring storyline of Snoopy imagining himself in the role of a World War I airman (and his doghouse a Sopwith Camel fighter plane), fighting the Red Baron. Gernhard wrote two new verses to the song, adding the character of Snoopy, and gave it to The Royal Guardsmen to sing.
