Who wrote the song, "Mama's Little Soldier"?

January 25, 2010 9:00 PM

I'm trying to find out who wrote the song, "Mama's Little Soldier". I heard Bill Staines sing it years ago and I thought he gave credit to Tom Paxton, but I have been unsuccessful finding out who actually wrote the song. I can't even find references to the song anywhere on the Internet or iTunes.

I would like to give credit to the composer, when I sing or use the song. The chorus goes:
Mama's soldier big and strong.
Not afraid of iodine,
Take a nap and we'll have a snack
You tough little soldier of mine...destructive little soldier of mine.

posted by hdh to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Voila, Track 31. It's called "Momma's Tough Little Soldier."
posted by Sys Rq at 9:22 PM on January 25, 2010

Best answer: Momma's Tough Little Soldier was composed by Tom Paxton. Allmusic.com lists it being performed by Carolyn Hester on the album Dear Companion. I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere to compare them to the lines above, but the allmusic.com sample starts will "and we'll have a snack... who cut pictures out of the magazine pasted them up on the wall..."
posted by birdherder at 9:25 PM on January 25, 2010

Best answer: As Sys Rq and birdherder have already mentioned, the song is titled "Momma's Tough Little Soldier" for Carolyn Hester's recording. Looks like the original song title from Tom Paxton's U.S. copyright registration is "Tough Little Soldier of Mine" (registered in 1964 and renewed in 1992).

Just as another data point, Carolyn Hester recorded the song for her 1964 album That's My Song -- it's one of the albums reissued/included in her Dear Companion box set. I'm not seeing any results of recordings by other artists, but hopefully the above info will be useful to you.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 10:04 PM on January 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks. That's all the information that I needed.
posted by hdh at 4:47 AM on January 26, 2010