In a couple days from now, the summer season unofficially begins, with celebrations of parades, picnics, ballgames, fireworks, with family and friends, all on a day which has special meaning to our country. It is the day set aside to celebrate those who fell in defense of this nation. In two days, we will be honoring them on Memorial Day ’25.

As with many special days, there are special songs that may be played on the radio, or sung by choirs, or streamed throughout homes, via local radio stations, Alexa and the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, Sirius Radio, or playlists you may have created on your cell phones through Spotify, Pandora, etal., that were songs written for the day, and the significance of that day in our lives.

Some of those songs are used in parades and city/town celebrations, some were/are used in Cemetery memorial programs after the parades or early in in the day. Before the ballgames, we will be invited to stand for the playing, and singing, of our National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, and during the seventh inning stretch, before Take Me Out to the Ballgame is played, we will celebrate this country with the playing and singing of God Bless America.

Along with the ones already mentioned, there are so many other patriotic songs that we can, and should listen to on this, and every Memorial Day. Here, in no particular order, are ones I can say I enjoy:

– You’re a Grand Old Flag

– The Caissons Song

– Anchors Aweigh

– The Marine Hymn (Halls of Montezuma)

– Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder

– Semper Paratus (U.S. Coast Guard Song)

– When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

– Battle Hymn of the Republic

– Taps

– Stars and Stripes Forever

– The Washington Post March

– Keep the Home Fires Burning

– It’s a Long Way to Tipperary

– K-K-K-Katy

– Pack Up Your Troubles

– Over There

– Mademoiselle from Armentieres

– How Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm

– Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

– Moonlight Serenade

– The White Cliffs of Dover

– Don’t Sit Under the Appletree

– Heartbreak Ridge

– Eve of Destruction

– The Battle of the Green Berets

– God Bless the U. S. A.

– Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue

– American Soldier

– Mr. Red, White, and Blue

– This Land is Your Land

– The Liberty Bell

– National Emblem March

– American Pageant

– Hail to the Chief

– Waltzing Matilda

– The Battle Cry of Freedom

– Camptown Races

– Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean

– The Thunderer

– Semper Fidelis

– Yankee Doodle

– America the Beautiful

– My Country ’tis of Thee

– Reveille

– Flags of Freedom

– Shenandoah

So, as we memorialize those who gave the “Last full measure of devotion,” those who made the ultimate sacrifice, who gave their lives, so we could/can be free and enjoy freedoms afforded all Americans by the forefathers of this country 248 plus years ago, may we do it in style, by remembering them in song and melody that was written to honor them. Thanks to the fallen, for their service and devotion to God, Country, Honor, and their fellow men and women of this country, and the world. Today, we honor them, we remember them, we salute them in speech, prose, poetry, and in music. God Bless them and God Bless the United States of America.