Paul Revere, a Nobel Prize and a #1Hit Song

marko

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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I posted this once before a few years ago but this Friday will mark the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous ride. Thought some of you might appreciate a break from the tariff threads.

Connections:
This is the true story connecting Paul Revere, a Nobel Peace Prize and a Number One hit song.

We’re all familiar with Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” who set out to warn the Boston countryside about the impending arrival of British troops. While historically inaccurate, the poem solidified Revere’s name in history even though he was more of a composite of several men (and one woman) who rode that night.

Well beyond and after his famous “Midnight Ride” Paul had an amazing life and career as a silversmith, engraver, statesman and businessman. There’s an entire town named after him among other notables, including siring 16 children! In fact, many of his descendants still live in Massachusetts to this day; a few of them, yes, named Paul Revere!

What is not so well known is that Revere did not ride alone on his way to Lexington and Concord. There were several other riders who headed out that night to alert other towns along different routes and Revere headed out of Boston with two others. In fact, while Revere was able to get as far as Lexington, he was stopped and detained outside of town by the British Army and never completed his intended route to Concord. (Today, there’s a roadside marker commemorating the place where he was captured).

What happened was this: Just after midnight, Revere and his two fellow riders approached a contingent of British soldiers at a Lexington checkpoint. They knew they were in trouble. They were spotted and the three of them scattered in different directions. Only Revere was detained. In the confusion, the two others were not captured.

One of the two was a man by the name of William Dawes. He rode into a field, was thrown from his horse, the horse took off and Dawes ended up walking back to Lexington on foot. His role the rest of that evening is a bit murky but he continued in later weeks and months as a patriot actively involved in the cause for American independence. He was eventually commissioned as a major in the Boston militia regiment and acted as quartermaster. He died in 1799.

But his story does not end there.

Mr Dawes’ great-great grandson was a fellow by the name of Charles Dawes. He was born 90 years after the famous ride in 1865 and over time became a successful businessman. Eventually he ended up in politics and under President Harding was appointed to the Allied Reparations Project to help Germany restore its economy after World War I. This led to what was known as the “Dawes Plan” and his work on this earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.

In 1925, Charles became Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge.

After leaving politics he went back to his business interests and died in 1951 at the age of 85.

But the story does not end there!

It seems that back in 1912, Charles wrote an instrumental titled “Melody in A Major” for violin. It was a minor popular song at the time and was largely forgotten. Forty years later in 1951 a fellow by the name of Carl Sigman added lyrics to the song and renamed it “It’s All in the Game” (many a tear has to fall, but it’s all in the game) where, in 1958 it sat for six weeks as the number one hit on American Billboard’s charts.

So, that’s the whole story connecting Paul Revere, a Nobel Prize and a #1 hit song.

Mr Dawes and Bob Dylan share the distinction of being the only Nobel Prize winners and #1 song writers as well as being the only other member of Congress and a #1 song writer with Sonny Bono.

"It's All in the Game" also holds a significant place in music history as the first song by an African-American artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 100.
 
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I believe it was the 16 year old girl Sybil Ludington who was the only one to successfully warn the villagers, but of course Ludington doesn't rhyme with ".....and you will hear ."
 
Marko --
That was an excellent read....thanks for posting! Love our early History.

(Although I thought for sure there would be a mention of "Kicks getting harder to find" in there somewhere-- Heh)
 
Marko --
That was an excellent read....thanks for posting! Love our early History.

(Although I thought for sure there would be a mention of "Kicks getting harder to find" in there somewhere-- Heh)
Well, "you gotta get yourself straight"!
Glad you enjoyed.
 
“If I break some rules along the way, girl, you, you gotta understand.”
 
“If I break some rules along the way, girl, you, you gotta understand.”
Tried that line with DW...didn't work.
 
History is so much more than 11th grade U.S. History.
I don't think they do that any more. Certainly if my kids are any example, US History is no longer taught. And they went to a really good school.
 
I believe it was the 16 year old girl Sybil Ludington who was the only one to successfully warn the villagers, but of course Ludington doesn't rhyme with ".....and you will hear ."
Sybil Ludington was in New York and rode on the night of April 26, 1777, to alert the local militia to the British attack on Danbury, CT. Over three years after Paul Revere and William Dawes made their ride out of Boston.
 
I don't think they do that any more. Certainly if my kids are any example, US History is no longer taught. And they went to a really good school.
I had US History in eleventh grade, and US Govt in twelfth. Studied both in college as well, with history being much more in depth than the high school version.

Google seems to think it’s still a requirement in most (all?) states, but YMMV.
 
My first thought when I saw the title of this thread was the band, "Paul Revere and the Raiders". :p
My first thought as well. Had it been closer to the 18th of the month, I might have put it together without reading first.

Anyway, I appreciate the history refresher.
 
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