A regular feature of the writer Mark Steyn's website is his "Song of the Week." This week, he talks about "Roses of Picardy", which was (would you believe it) written by the same guy who wrote the lyrics for "Danny Boy." Anyway, this is what he has to say:

"On Remembrance Day – or Veterans’ Day or Armistice Day, according to taste – I find myself thinking about songs from the Great War. It may have been “the war to end all wars”, but it was a bonanza for Tin Pan Alley. More war songs were written for the First World War than for any other war before or since, and many of them resonate to this day – “Over There”, “Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag (And Smile, Smile, Smile)”, “How Ya Gonna Keep ’Em Down On The Farm After They’ve Seen Paree?”, “Mademoiselle From Armentieres (Hinky-Dinky Parly-Voo)”, etc. But it’s the ballads I think of – the catchpenny songs of love enlarged by the canvas they’re played against: “If You Were The Only Girl In The World”, for example, a favorite of the British Tommies in the hell of 1916, the year of the Somme... "