In February 18, 1942, just two months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded the song with vocals by Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, and The Modernaires. This version spent thirteen weeks on the Billboard charts and was ranked as one of the nation's best-selling recordings of the year. Later that year, the Andrews Sisters sang it in the movie, “Private Buckaroo” and the song continued to remain very popular.
The song’s lyrics are about the words of two young lovers who pledge their fidelity while one of them is away serving in the war. The lyrics of the song were written by Lew Brown and Charles Tobias and it was composed by Sam H. Stept as an up-tempo version of the nineteenth-century English folk song "Long, Long Ago”. (If you are familiar with both songs, note the similarity.) As with many songs of its day, the first verse is an introduction and the actual tune begins with the second verse and then continues through the rest of the song. If you are interested, you can easily listen to the Andrews Sisters’ version online (movie clip), and if you are familiar with this famous song, sing along!
Lyrics:
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)
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…
So…
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 walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No, no, no, don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home
I'm so afraid the glace we made beneath the moonlit skies
Will fade away, we're bound to stay, the stars get in your Eyes.
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 sole 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 marchin' home
(Home, home, home sweet home)
(Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane) with anyone else but me
(With anyone else but her), no, no, no, not a single sole but me
No, no, no, don't you go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Not till you see me, not until you see me marchin' home
(Home, home, home sweet home) (just wait till I come marching home)
Don't sit under the apple tree, with anyone else but me
anyone else but me, anyone else but me
Just sit down under the apple tree,
baby, just you and me
When I come marching home.