Soldier's Last Letter

Soldier's Last Letter was a country music song written by Redd Stewart and Ernest Tubb and recorded by Ernest Tubb. It was released in the United States in 1944.^[1]

Background and content

In 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Redd was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the South Pacific. While stationed there with the rank of sergeant, Redd wrote "A Soldier's Last Letter”, which Ernest Tubb worked on and recorded in 1944, making it a No.1 hit staying at the top for four weeks out of a seven-month stay on the Country charts,^[2] and crossing over to the Pop chart Top 20. The B-side of the Ernest Tubb recording of "Soldiers Last Letter" a song entitled, "Yesterday's Tears" peaked at number four on the Juke Box Folk chart. The song was also recorded by country music artist Hank Snow. Hank was from Nova Scotia, Canada so the last line in the song was changed to "And dear God keep our Canada free..."

Merle Haggard version

"Soldier's Last Letter"
Single by Merle Haggard
from the album Hag
B-side	"Farmer's Daughter"
Released	January 27, 1971
Format	7"
Genre	Country
Label	Capitol
Writer(s)	Redd Stewart Ernest Tubb
Producer(s)	Ken Nelson
Merle Haggard singles chronology
"I Can't Be Myself" (1970) "Soldier's Last Letter" (1971) "Someday We'll Look Back" (1971)

Merle Haggard later had a hit single with the song in 1970. His version reached number three on the U.S. country chart and number four on the Canadian country chart. It also peaked at number ninety on the Hot 100.

Chart performance (Merle Haggard)

Chart (1971)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	90
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	4

Notes

1. Redd Stewart
2. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 354.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics