Lyrics
I wrote my mother, I wrote my father
And now I’m writing you too
I’m sure of mother, I’m sure of father
And now I want to be sure, very, very sure of you
Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no
Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home
Don’t go walking down lovers’ lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no
Don’t go walking down lovers’ lane with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home
I just got word from a guy who heard
From the guy next door to me
The girl he met just loves to pet
And it fits you to a “T”
So don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home,
Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
(With anyone else but her)
No, no, no, not a single soul but me
No, no, no, don’t you sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Not till you see me, not until you see me marching home
Home, home, home, home sweet home
Don’t go walking down lovers’ lane with anyone else but me
(With anyone else but her)
No, no, no, not a single soul but me
No, no, no, don’t you go walking down lovers’ lane
With anyone else but me
Not till you see me, not until you see me marching home
Home, home, home, home sweet home
Just wait till I come marching home
No, don’t go walking down the lovers’ lane
No, walking down the lovers’ lane till you see
When you see me marching home
Then we’ll go arm in arm and
Sit down under the apple tree
Baby, just you and me
When I come marching home
About the Song
“Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)” is a popular song that was made famous by Glenn Miller and by the Andrews Sisters during World War II. Its lyrics are the words of two young lovers who pledge their fidelity while one of them is away serving in the war. Originally titled “Anywhere the Bluebird Goes”, the melody was written by Sam H. Stept as an updated version of the nineteenth-century English folk song “Long, Long Ago”. Lew Brown and Charles Tobias wrote the lyrics and the song debuted in the 1939 Broadway musical Yokel Boy. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, Brown and Tobias modified the lyrics to their current form, with the chorus ending with “…till I come marching home”.”Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” remained in Your Hit Parade’s first place from October 1942 through January 1943. It was the longest period for a war song to hold first place. In February 18, 1942 the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded the song with vocals by Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, and The Modernaires. This record spent thirteen weeks on the Billboard charts and was ranked as the nation’s twelfth best-selling recording of the year. In May the song was featured in the film Private Buckaroo as a performance by the Andrews Sisters with the Harry James orchestra and featuring a tap dancing routine by The Jivin’ Jacks and Jills. This scene is often considered one of the most memorable of the film. The Andrews Sisters then released the song on Decca Records. (In a 1971 interview, Patty Andrews reported that this was their most requested song.) Many other artists released records of the song that year, including Kay Kyser. With the Miller, Andrews, and Kyser records all being popular on the radio, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” became one of the few songs in history to have three different versions on the radio hit parade at the same time. The Andrews version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016. In 1943, Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh wrote “They Just Chopped Down the Old Apple Tree” for the film Around the World as a humorous parody of this song, which was recorded by The Dinning Sisters. Frank Loesser’s and Arthur Schwartz’s “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old” from Thank Your Lucky Stars, also references the song when a woman tells her lover that she “can’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me” because all of the other men her age are also fighting in the war. More recently, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” was featured in the films Twelve O’Clock High (1949), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Kiss Them for Me (1957), A Carol for Another Christmas (1964), In Dreams (1999) and The Master (2012). It also featured in the mini-series The Pacific, and an instrumental muzak version was featured in the film Devil (2010).