A Scottish Soldier by Andy Stewart, Scotland’s First Ever Award Winning Pop Hit

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A Scottish Soldier

In the annals of Scottish music, few songs achieved the global acclaim of “A Scottish Soldier“. Recorded by Scottish singing superstar Andy Stewart in 1960, this song not only captured the hearts of listeners worldwide but also catapulted Andy to international fame as an entertainer known for his charismatic performances and his ability to connect with audiences through his music.

Andy had written lyrics which he paired with what was already considered one of the finest “traditional” Scots pipe tunes “The Green Hills of Tyrol“, resulting in a haunting ballad concerning a dying soldier wishing to return to the hills of his homeland, rather than to die on foreign soil. The song’s arrangement was written by Andy’s friend and BBC producer of “The White Heather Club” TV show; Iain MacFadyen.

The song’s success was immediate and overwhelming, it’s poignant lyrics and haunting melody resonated deeply with audiences, despite cultural and geographical boundaries. It became one of the longest-charting singles in the UK spending an astonishing 40 weeks in the charts, peaking at number 19. More impressively, the single achieved the Number One chart position in territories such Canada, Australia and New Zealand, solidifying its status as a global hit.

Andy Stewart became the first ever Scottish artiste to be awarded a silver disc for a record release. The silver disc, awarded for selling over 250,000 copies, was a significant achievement (and a remarkable feat for a Scottish artist at the time) and showcased the universal appeal and emotional depth of the song. But the success didn’t stop at silver. By 1963 “A Scottish Soldier” had achieved “gold” status and remained in print throughout the world during the sixties, selling steadily. Ten years after it was recorded it was still available to buy as a 7″ record and neared two million in total sales.

“A Scottish Soldier” turned out to be more than just a song. Breaking barriers and setting new standards in the music industry, the journey from silver to gold was a celebration of the power of music to touch hearts and transcend borders.

The Origins of A Scottish Soldier

The popular romantic idea of “A Scottish Soldier” being a stirring, patriotic ballad celebrating the bravery and spirit of Scottish soldiers, and the notion of the tune being an old Scottish traditional, were actually far from the truth behind the origins of “A Scottish Soldier“. A closer look at the lyrics and the story behind the song reveals a more nuanced and poignant narrative.

Andy had based the song on an old pipe-tune “The Green Hills of Tyrol“, a tune he had first heard as a boy when the family visited Braemar Highland Games. The song had been growing in popularity following repeat performances on “The White Heather Club” – performances demanded by the sheer number of viewers requests to the BBC.

“I had always known and loved ‘The Green Hills of Tyrol’ and the tune came to me. My father was a musician and played it on his fiddle and I remembered it from when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. It was one of the few things I could play as a boy on the mouth organ and I’d always had an ambition to write words to the tune. When I first began putting words to music, I was haunted by this tune and eventually inspiration came during rehearsals for ‘The White Heather Club’. I got an idea for the lyric for the song. It was a story about a Scottish soldier who finds himself in a far land, his soldiering days are over and the call of his own country takes him back for his final resting to Scotland. And I sat down and the words just came to me: “there was a soldier, a Scottish soldier…”

I wrote two verses and then I got pianist Harry Carmichael to fit the tune to my words. The next day we were doing the song and I knew it wasn’t right. It was Bobby MacLeod’s Black Band that was playing it with us and of course they didn’t need the music, they knew the tune, they just had to play the arrangement that had been set down of the tune. So I went down to one of pubs in Springburn Road and I wrote on the back of an envelope the third verse (the slow verse) and came back and just sang the song.”

The melody of “The Green Hills of Tyrol” has its roots in the opera world. It was originally composed by the Italian maestro Gioachino Rossini for the third act of his 1829 opera “William Tell“. This connection to classical music gives the tune a unique place in the history of bagpipe music.

Rossini in-turn had adapted that tune from Alpine folk music – nothing at all to do with Scotland. However that did not stop Andy receiving a backlash from traditionalists who wrote to him saying he had ruined a “fine old Scottish pipe tune” by putting words to it.

“If those people had known the origins for the melody, they would probably have choked on their porridge. The tune is actually a traditional Swiss air heard in Sardinia and borrowed by a Scottish Pipe-Major during the Crimean War.

Also (regarding the “soldier”) I was really thinking of a mercenary soldier, somewhere around the 16th or 17th century, as part of the Scottish guard of the French Kings perhaps.”

The timeless tune “The Green Hills of Tyrol” was introduced to the Scottish bagpipe repertoire during the Crimean War (1853-56). Pipe-Major John MacLeod of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders heard a Sardinian band playing selections from Rossini’s opera and was struck by the melody. He adapted it for the bagpipes, and it quickly became a favorite among pipers. The tune was first published for the bagpipes in 1900 by Peter Henderson.

“The Green Hills of Tyrol” is often played as a 3/4 march and is a common choice for pipe band competitions and military ceremonies. Its haunting and evocative melody captures the spirit of the Scottish Highlands, making it a favorite for both performers and audiences and a cornerstone of the bagpipe repertoire. It is taught to pipers at an early stage and is often one of the first tunes they learn. Its enduring appeal lies in its beautiful melody and the deep emotional connection it evokes. Whether played at a solemn ceremony or a lively competition, “The Green Hills of Tyrol” continues to resonate with listeners around the world as a piece of musical history that bridges the worlds of classical opera and Scottish folk music.

Andy’s lyrics tell the story of a Scottish soldier who finds himself far from home and near end-of-life. The soldier longs to return to the hills of his homeland rather than die in a foreign land and the soldier’s wish to hear the pibroch – not in the foreign hills – but back in Scotland underscores his yearning for home and peace, rather than glory on the battlefield. This longing is a central theme of the song, highlighting the soldier’s deep connection to his homeland and his desire for peace in his final moments.

Scottish soldiers in past centuries had developed a reputation for being fierce and fearless fighters and being rewarded well, could often be found far away from home for reasons of monetary gain, war being a lucrative business. So although there may well have been “battles glorious and deeds victorious”, when “the bugle ceases” the underlying story is not a straightforward one of patriotic heroism, rather its true essence lies in its melancholic reflection on the futility of war and the personal cost of conflict.

Recording A Scottish Soldier

In September 1960 following a record breaking summer theatre season in Dundee, Andy travelled to EMI’s London studios at Abbey Road to record the song for record release. In the recording studio he was accompanied by The Michael Sammes Singers with Orchestra conducted by Bernard Ebbinghouse.

“I flew down from Dundee to record it on a Sunday and I should have known it would go alright because that was through public demand – the first night I sang it on ‘The White Heather Club’, for example, we had about 800 letters the next day saying they liked the song. I got this message left saying “I hope you realise this is Sunday and it’s double-time and we hope this is all going to be worth it…”

Shortly after that we went on holiday and I remember saying to my wife “Well I don’t care if there is only one copy bought”, rather immodestly I suppose, but under the circumstances it wasn’t immodesty because I was untried in the realms of recording, I said “I think it’s a jolly good song – and I like it”. I honestly do not know how much money I’ve made from the record – I’m still getting royalties. But I do know that in one year alone it earned me £10,000.”

Single Released: 1960

The 45RPM single was recorded; pressed and out for sale in the UK all within a couple of weeks in September 1960 on Top Rank International (JAR 512). It’s popularity was instant – and lasting – spending 40 weeks in the singles chart breaking the record for the longest consecutive chart run without making the top ten (from 19th January 1961 to 21st October 1961) eventually reaching number 19 and was the fourth top-ranked UK hit single of 1961.

Following this success, the single was released in most other western-speaking countries and was soon picking up interest.

The USA was the first foreign territory to receive “A Scottish Soldier“, in November 1960, however by February 1961 still nothing much was happening. Eventually the single finally began to take off in March when Warwick Records bought the master-tape from Top Rank, re-released the single on its own label and began some heavy promotion. The song eventually peaked at number 69 but crucially remained on the US Billboard chart for 12 months making it one of the top fifty selling records in the USA for 1961.

In Canada “A Scottish Soldier” entered the charts at number 26 on 30th January 1961, leaping to number three the following week, then reaching the coveted Number One spot which it held for three weeks: 13th, 20th & 27th February 1961, only to be replaced by “Donald, Where’s Your Troosers?” on the 6th March. Andy became one of only 4 artists that replaced themselves at the top of the charts in Canadian chart history.

In Australia “A Scottish Soldier” would become the biggest selling single since Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” in 1956, entering the charts at number five, rising to number two the following week, then hitting the top spot on the 10th July 1961.

In New Zealand Andy was going down well too. It was reported on the 24th July 1961 that “A Scottish Soldier” was “making an impact in New Zealand” going straight into the charts at number ten. By 1st August it was number four, a week later it had slipped to number seven, only to rise again the following week to three, then on the 21st August hitting Number One.

The single sold amazingly well all over the world. It sold well in Hong Kong, charted in South Africa and became a top five hit in India. In the three months since its release the single had sold 175,000 copies in Britain alone, by May it had sold 250,000.

Lyrics

There was a soldier, a Scottish soldier,
Who wandered far away and soldiered far away;
There was none bolder,
With good broad shoulder,
He’d fought in many a fray
And fought and won!

He’d seen the glory and told the story,
Of battles glorious and deeds victorious,
But now he’s sighing,
His heart is crying
To leave those green hills of Tyrol.

CHORUS
Because those green hills are not highland hills,
Or the island hills they’re not my land’s hills!
And fair as these green foreign hills may be,
They are not the hills of home.

And now this soldier, this Scottish soldier,
Who’d wandered far away and soldiered far away;
Sees leaves are falling,
And death is calling,
And he will fade away,
In that far land!

He called his piper, his trusty piper,
And bade him sound a lay a pibroch sad to play
Upon a hillside,
But Scottish hillside
Not on those green hills of Tyrol.
Chorus

And now this soldier, this Scottish soldier
Will wander far no more and soldier far no more,
And on a hillside,
A Scottish hillside
You’ll see a piper play,
His soldier home!
He’s seen the glory, he’s told his story
Of battles glorious and deeds victorious
The bugles cease now, he is at peace now,
Far from those green hills of Tyrol.

He’d seen the glory, he’d told his story
Of battles glorious and deeds victorious,
The bugles cease now, he is at peace now,
Far from those green hills of Tyrol.
Chorus

Sheet Music

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Scotland’s First Ever Award Winning Pop Star

Andy presented with his silver disc by Lance-Corporal David McCullough

On the 5th May 1961 Andy was awarded a silver disc by the British popular music magazine Disc for passing the quarter-of-a-million mark for sales of the 45RPM single – the first Scottish artiste ever to receive one.

Andy was featured on the front of Disc magazine in June 1961: “Dazed by Fantastic Success”. In the early sixties Andy would appear regularly in the music papers. In the pre-Beatles era of music Andy mixed freely alongside ballad singers, jazz musicians, blues artists, instrumentalists, novelty acts, etc. – all mingling in the world of “popular” music. British pop being a veritable smorgasbord of genres and musical ideas without a dominant narrative, popular was basically defined as anything that wasn’t “classical”. An examination of the UK charts for the year 1961 is a perfect illustration of this uniquely varied time in music.

Popular music was consumed by any age; mums and dads, grandparents, and kids alike. It was only the arrival of The Beatles and the groups that followed in a veritable tidal wave during 1963 that redefined what popular music actually was. From that point in time, “popular music” transformed into “pop music” aimed chiefly at the teenage market and very quickly, artists that had appeared regularly in the music press began to be classified and pigeon-holed and were dropped from the music papers. Regulars from the early sixties like Shirley Bassey, Frankie Vaughan and Acker Bilk were most definitely out, replaced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, et al.

But back in 1961, whilst not being Scotland’s first ever “pop star” (others can argue whether it was Lonnie Donegan or Jackie Dennis) the overwhelming success of “A Scottish Soldier” had most definitely turned Andy Stewart into Scotland’s first ever award winning pop star.

The Legacy of A Scottish Soldier

“A Scottish Soldier” can resonate with anyone who has experienced the pain of separation from their homeland or the sorrow of war. It can serve as a reminder that the true cost of conflict is often borne by individuals who long for nothing more than the comfort of their own familiar surroundings. It is not simply a patriotic ballad but a deeply emotional and reflective piece that speaks to the universal themes of home, loss, and the human cost and futility of war. By understanding the song’s true meaning, we can appreciate its depth and the poignant message it conveys.

“A Scottish Soldier” exists as a piece of Scottish heritage that broke barriers and set new standards in the music industry and the journey from folk music, to the opera stage to the Highland bagpipes and finally to gold in the pop world is a testament to the universal power of music to touch hearts and transcend borders, cultures and time.

A Scottish Soldier by Andy Stewart, Scotland’s First Ever Award Winning Pop Hit