One Tin Soldier - The Legend of Billy Jack

"One Tin Soldier" is a 60s era anti-war song written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. The Canadian pop group Original Caste first recorded the song in 1969. The track briefly reached limited popularity locally and reached Number 34 on the American pop charts in early 1970.

"One Tin Soldier" tells the abstract story of a hidden treasure and two neighboring peoples, the Mountain People and the Valley People. The Valley People are aware of a treasure on the mountain, buried under a stone; they send a message to the Mountain People demanding those riches. When told they can share the treasure, the Valley People instead decided to take it all by force. After killing all the Mountain People, the victors move the stone and find nothing more than a simple message: "Peace on Earth." Ironically, the valley people destroyed the treasure in pursuit of it.


The Billy Jack connection:
Jinx Dawson of the band Coven sang the song at a 1971 session with the film's orchestra as part of the soundtrack for the Warner Brothers movie Billy Jack. Jinx asked that her band, Coven, be listed on the recording and film, not her name as a solo artist. This Warner release, titled as "One Tin Soldier: The Legend of Billy Jack," reached #17 on Billboard's Hot 100 in fall 1971, only to be pulled from the charts as it was moving up by the Billy Jack film producers due to legal squabbles over the rights to the recording. The full Coven band then reluctantly re-recorded the song for their MGM album. Thus the MGM album containing a second version of this song displayed their whited-out faces on the cover, contrived again by the film's producer Tom Laughlin. The recording then hit the charts again in both 1973 and 1974 near the end of the Vietnam War and the release of the film The Trial of Billy Jack. The Coven recording was named Number One All Time Requested Song in 1971 and 1973 by the American Radio Broadcasters Association. A slightly different version recorded by Guy Chandler (titled "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)") charted in summer 1973 (Wikipedia).

• Category

  Education

[Contakum]

This song is "old" (a hit for Coven in 1971), and here in 2013 it STILL speaks, defends and upholds the best of humanity.

[Tammy Clark]

My daughter is deaf and loves music ! She can feel the beat and thanks to videos like this she can put the beat to words ...so from her and I THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

[randy szymkowski]

Right on my friend. My sentiments exactly

[randy szymkowski]

I must have seen that movie half a dozen times when I was 14. It absolutely touched my heart . Then I forgot all about it. Now I stumble upon it 40 years later. One of my favourite movies.

[Linda Byrley]

Besides having a giant crush on Billy Jack...It made me cry then and still does...Everyone needs to watch this and learn something. Thank You

[SilentTrama]

Jinx Dawson sang it in the studio for the movie without Coven but she wouldn't sing it unless the entire band got the credit. The great songs never get old

[kyle villarreal sr.]

I so enjoyed the"Billy Jack" movie, and that was after I fell in love with the song; " one tin soldier"!

[Keoki57able]

I also made a comment on the thread of the One Tin Soldier post by dolphinlover46. Hey thanks for touching base! Stay in touch.

[EskrimaTiger]

I'm glad you mentioned that. Many people think it was Tom Laughlin executing the crescent kick to Posner's face, when in fact it was Grandmaster Bong Soo Han. Grandmaster Han would go on to have a role in the sequel, The Trial of Billy Jack, appearing as Master Han.

[dannifan123]

My mother song this to me to sleep when I was a baby

[ben smith]

Best theme song,best message, best low budget film ever made

Sorry Mark,u just don't get it.

[Randy Mack]

"All For What??" "So Sad, But I Do LOVE THIS SONG;)"