The Oak Ridge Boys' Military Tune Finds New Life On YouTube

The Oak Ridge Boys got a bit of a surprise about a month ago when a YouTube video of one of their songs started getting a lot of views.
The song “G.I. Joe and Lillie” was never intended for the commercial mainstream, but the video has received more than a million hits on YouTube. The live video has become very popular with military families around the world.
“G.I. Joe and Lillie” was written by Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys as a tribute to his parents’ relationship. They were both serving in World War II, met and fell in love. The song follows their first meeting, her support through Senior Joe’s battles with war wounds and their eventual hospitalizations in their later years.
The song is on the group’s album Colors, released in 2003. But the Oak Ridge Boys were still stunned at the response to the video online.
“Something incredible happened about a month ago when many military web sites discovered the video and began to embed the link into their homepages, citing it as an example of patriotism and inspiration,” Joe said. “The whole thing blows me away.”
To date, the piece has amassed more than 1.2 million viewings.
“If my mom only knew that young soldiers of today are reading her story or hearing her song, it would make her very, very happy,” Joe said. “She loved every one of them with all her heart.”
The “G.I. Joe And Lillie” video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lQk27hPzZs.