I don’t know where it comes from, but I am a sucker for patriotic marches, and I would argue that this one is the grandaddy of them all. It’s rousing, it’s fun to play, and as far as I know, it’s the only march to be shifted into a parody that was arguably more familiar than the original song. (How many of us learned to be kind to our web-footed friends before we knew this was a whole other song?)

Congress made it “the official national march” in 1987, but the song dates back to 1897 and apparently was a hit right off—with the first public performance on this day in that year in Philadelphia, Pa. Sousa played it at every tour stop for 25 years after writing it. Sousa composed more than 100 marches (plus some other stuff, including operettas).

I grew up playing this song in marching band (and I will say that, maybe second to the actual Marine band, the USC version is by far the best; I will fight you on that). And I will freely admit that part of my fondness for this song is that it has a piccolo part that you can actually hear, which is not the case with so many other marching songs. And I knew that the song had Actual Not Kid lyrics, although I’d only ever heard the “Hurrah for the flag of the free” trio part. But apparently there’s a whole passel of lyrics I’d never heard:

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears ‘mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom’s shield and hope.

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let tyrants remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

And now that I’ve firmly planted this song in your head for the day, have a good one!