Song of the Day: St. James Infirmary

The song of the day for Veterans Day, Monday, November 11, 2024, is “St. James Infirmary.”

About Today

Today we remember one very special veteran, Anthony Dominick Benedetto. He was drafted into the Army in November 1944, during the final stages of World War II, and was trained at Fort Dix and Fort Robinson to be an infantry rifleman. Tony Bennett related his experience being drafted in his autobiography The Good Life:

I went down to the induction center and stood in line with a bunch of other eighteen-year-olds, wondering what was going to happen to me. When my name was called, I went up to the desk, and the induction officer asked me if I preferred the army or the navy. I said, “Navy,” and the guy stamped “Army.” I thought, “Oh, boy, so that’s the way it’s going to be.” Little did I know what I was in for.

In January 1945, Bennett was assigned to the 255th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division, a unit filling in for the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of the Bulge (The Americans suffered some 75,000 casualties in the Battle of the Bulge.) The 255th regiment moved across France, and later, into Germany. In March 1945 Bennett entered the front line and what he would later describe as a “front-row seat in hell.”

During his service, he was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg, where some American prisoners of war from the 63rd Division had also been held. He related:

It was gratifying that the last official mission of the 255th Regiment was the liberation of the concentration camp in the town of Landsberg. It was thirty miles south of the notorious Dachau camp, on the opposite bank of the Lech River, which we were approaching. The river was treacherous and difficult to cross because there were still German soldiers protecting it, but we wouldn’t let anything stop us from freeing those prisoners. Many writers have recorded what it was like in the concentration camps much more eloquently than I ever could, so I won’t even try to describe it. Just let me say I’ll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners as they wandered aimlessly around the campgrounds. Once we took possession of the camp, we immediately got food and water to the survivors, but they had been brutalized for so long that at first they couldn’t believe that we were there to help them and not to kill them. Many of the survivors were barely able to stand. To our horror we discovered that all of the women and children had been killed long before our arrival and that just the day before, half the remaining survivors had been shot. We were relieved to find that many of the soldiers from the 63rd Division who were taken prisoner had been sent to Landsberg, and so we were able to liberate them as well. The whole thing was beyond comprehension. After seeing such horrors with my very eyes, it angers me that some people insist there were no concentration camps.

After the end of World War II, Bennett stayed in Germany as part of the occupying force. One day, while Bennett was singing in the shower, a passing officer noted that he had a great voice and encouraged him to join the band the 255th Regiment was forming. He was assigned to an informal Special Services band that entertained nearby American troops and rose to the rank of corporal.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1945, Bennett was on his way to dinner when he ran into a black friend from high school and brought him to dinner. A bigoted officer cut off Bennett’s corporal stripes with a razor and then spat on them before flinging them to the floor. Bennett was reassigned to Graves Registration Service duties. A major then heard about Bennett’s demotion and used his clout to reassign him. Subsequently, he sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari (a name he had started using before the war, chosen after the city and province in Italy and as a partial anagram of his family origins in Calabria). While listening to the Armed Forces Radio Service broadcasts, Bennett became acquainted with the new sounds of jazz coming out of the States, which included artists like Nat King Cole.

On August 15, 1946, he was officially honorably discharged as a private first class:

I still remember coming into New York harbor a few weeks later. My mother and my aunt were waiting on the dock, and when they saw me holding a cigarette, they started crying. I had never smoked before I went to Europe. They couldn’t believe it, and neither could I. I was all grown up, and I was home.

About This Song

“St. James Infirmary” was based on a traditional American folk song. Louis Armstrong recorded the song in 1928, which resulted in making the song popular from then on.

About This Version

PVC Anthony Dominick Benedetto, singing as Joe Bari, recorded “St. James Infirmary” in 1946 with the 314th Army Special Services Band of the European Theater.

“St. James Infirmary,” as well as Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Volume 1, is available on Apple Music.