Deck Of Cards

Have a look at this video and see what you think.....

" Deck of Cards" is a recitation that became popular first during the late 1940s. It relates the tale of a young American soldier arrested and charged with playing cards during a church service, and first became a hit in the U.S. in 1948 by country musician T. Texas Tyler.


Set during World War II, where a group of U.S. Army soldiers, on a long hike during a campaign in southern Italy, arrive and camp near the town of Cassino. While scripture is being read in church, one man who has only a deck of playing cards pulls them out and spreads them in front of him. He is immediately spotted by a sergeant, who believes the soldier is playing cards in church and orders him to put them away. The soldier is then arrested and taken before the provost marshal to be judged. The provost marshal demands an explanation and the soldier says that he had been on a long march, without a bible or a prayer book. He then explains the significance of each card..

T. Texas Tyler's rendition went to number 2 on the country charts in 1948.

A version by Tex Ritter later in the year reached number 10 on the same chart.

The highest-charting version was recorded in 1959 by future game show host Wink Martindale, and was performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Martindale's rendition (titled "Deck of Cards") went to No. 7 on the Billboard charts and number 11 on the country charts in 1959, attained multi-platinum recognition, and reached No. 1 on many worldwide music charts.

A later cover by Bill Anderson made number 60 on the country charts in 1991. The song was also a UK No. 13 hit in October 1973 for the entertainer Max Bygraves.

The newly published edition of UK hit singles dating between 1940 and 1952 shows the song reaching number 2 for Phil Harris in January 1949.

The version you watched above is my own version, basically done in a van travelling to work and edited together with images from the world wide web.

My love of recitals comes from my late grandfather who loved to entertain an audience with some great renditions.