One Tin Soldier
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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 but never broke into the larger US and World charts.
The US rock group Coven recorded the song as part of the sound track for the movie Billy Jack. This release, titled as "One Tin Soldier: The Legend of Billy Jack", reached number 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in fall 1971, while a slightly different version recorded by Guy Chandler (titled "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)") charted in summer 1973. Coven never recorded another significant hit, becoming a so-called one hit wonder.
"One Tin Soldier" tells the abstract story of a hidden treasure and two feuding peoples (the Mountain People and the Valley People) to describe how inhumane some people can be when greed is involved. 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 mount their horses, swords drawn, and ride up to take it by force. After killing all the Mountain People, the victors move the stone and find nothing more than a simple message: "Peace on Earth".
The song has been covered by other groups, including Gimp, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and Killdozer. Luanne Platter (Brittany Murphey) sang the song on the King of the Hill Soundtrack. It has also been mistakenly credited to Joan Baez, who never recorded it.
