Here's to You (song)

The song is a tribute to two anarchists of Italian origin, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti who were sentenced to death by a United States court in the 1920s. Mainstream opinion has concluded since that the ruling was based on abhorrence to their anarchist political beliefs rather than on any proof that they committed the robbery and murders of which they were accused.Montgomery 1960 p. v.Young & Kaiser 1985 preface.

Despite the weaknesses of the jury's decision, correspondence by the novelist Upton Sinclair to his lawyer John Beardsley (penned in 1929 and unearthed in 2005) corroborated the guilty verdict against Sacco and Vanzetti for the murder of a payroll clerk and his guard. Sinclair told Beardsley that he had met with Sacco and Vanzetti's defense attorney, Fred Moore, and Moore informed the famous author that his clients were guilty as charged.Los Angeles Times [http://articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/24/local/me-sinclair24 "Sinclair Letter Turns Out to Be Another Expose"] Moreover, several forensic experts agreed that Sacco fired a shot from his Colt pistol at the scene of the crime.University of Missouri [http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/s&vevidence.html "Summary of Evidence in the Sacco & Vanzetti Case"]Jim Fisher – Edinboro University of Pennsylvania [http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/forensics/sacco2_1.html "Firearms Identification in the Sacco-Vanzetti Case"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030001705/http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/forensics/sacco2_1.html |date=October 30, 2019 }}

Thus, "Here's to You" contributes to the notion of the pair's innocence in the face of a supposedly bigoted American public.National Public Radio [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5245754 "Sacco and Vanzetti: Guilty After All?"] The case is known as the Sacco and Vanzetti Affair.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

The lyrics for "Here's to You" make use of a statement attributed to Vanzetti by Philip D. Strong, a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance, who visited Vanzetti in prison in May 1927, three months before his execution.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

{{blockquote|If it had not been for these things, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life we could have hoped to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as we now do by accident. Our words—our lives—our pains—nothing! The taking of our lives—lives of a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler—all! That last moment belongs to us—that agony is our triumph.{{cite book|last1=Sacco|first1=Nicola|last2=Vanzetti|first2=Bartolomeo|title=The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti|date=2007|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=978-0-14-310507-7|page=l|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofsaccova00sacc}}

}}

Here's to you, Nicola and Bart

Rest forever here in our hearts

The last and final moment is yours

That agony is your triumph.{{cite web|last1=Baez|first1=Joan|title=Here's to You|url=https://www.infinititesti.com/2013/08/27/joan-baez-heres-to-you-testo-e-traduzione/|website=InfinitiTesti|date=August 27, 2013|access-date=August 24, 2020}}

The song became an anthem of freedom, used in demonstrations, films, and video games.{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0-19-068102-9| last = Rosa| first = Alessandro De| title = Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words| date = 2019-02-01 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1veFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 54]}}{{Cite book| publisher = Rowman & Littlefield| isbn = 978-1-4985-6901-9| last = Sciannameo| first = Franco| title = Reflections on the Music of Ennio Morricone: Fame and Legacy| date = 2020 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=b2_KDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 96]}}

"Here's to You" was included in other films. In the 1978 film Germany in Autumn, it accompanies footage of the funeral for Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, who had committed suicide.{{Cite book |last1=Alter |first1=Nora M. |title=Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema, 1967-2000 |date=2009 |language=en |isbn=978-0-472-02257-1 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HWB9Om6ebbEC&pg=PA72 72] }}{{Cite journal |last1=Blumenthal-Barby |first1=Martin |title=Germany in Autumn: The Return of the Human |journal=Discourse |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=164, 166 |date=2007 |doi=10.1353/dis.2007.a252912 |issn=1522-5321 |jstor=41389771 |df=mdy-all }}

The song is used in the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362270/soundtrack|title=The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) : Soundtracks|website=IMDb.com|access-date=October 3, 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://musicbrainz.org/release/29d93150-709d-4aaa-8b16-0b3b0913885d |title=Release "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" by Various Artists |website=MusicBrainz.org |date=December 14, 2004 |access-date=October 3, 2016}}

The song also appears in the opening sequence, as well as credits of the 2014 video game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes produced by Hideo Kojima; a cover version also used as the end theme for its predecessor Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), which was also directed by Kojima.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

In 1972 the German songwriter Franz Josef Degenhardt sang the song under the title "Sacco und Vanzetti," with five verses. The Israeli singer Daliah Lavi sang it in English, French and German.[http://www.discogs.com/Daliah-Lavi-Heres-To-You/release/3715122 Daliah Lavi – Here's To You] Discogs.com Swedish singer-songwriter Agnetha Fältskog recorded the song in German and released it as a single in 1972, entitled "Geh' mit Gott". Another German cover version in Colognian dialect titled "Die Stadt" ('The Town') was created and sung by Trude Herr in 1987 and later on by the group Höhner.[https://www.songtexte.com/songtext/hohner/die-stadt-43d88367.html "Die Stadt"]. www.songtexte.com

The Italian version of the song is titled “Ho visto un film” sang by Gianni Morandi and originally released in 1971.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

The French version of the song is titled "La Marche de Sacco et Vanzetti". It was written and recorded by Greek folk artist Georges Moustaki. It was Baez herself who asked him to adapt it to French. When Moustaki sang it live, he often mixed the French and English lyrics. The French version was later covered by others including popular singer Mireille Mathieu.{{Cite book |last=Temkin |first=Moshik |title=The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=J7NoxKCE5oUC&pg=PA292 292] |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-15617-1 |year=2009 }}

British composer Harry Gregson-Williams orchestrated a cover of "Here's to You," featuring vocals by Lisbeth Scott. This version is heard during the end credits of the 2008 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In 2011, Bandista covered the song with the name "Selam size" on their album Daima!. Hayley Westenra and Ennio Morricone performed "Here's To You" on the album Paradiso, released in 2011 and nominated for a 2012 Classic Brit Award. Corsica-based band L'Arcusgi used "Here's to You" music in their 2011 song "Alba Nova" (in Corsican "A New Dawn").{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

In 2011 Tunisian musician Emel Mathlouthi covered the song in Arabic for the memory of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010, an act which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes.[https://afropop.org/articles/emel-mathlouthi-the-voice-of-the-arab-spring/ "Emel Mathlouthi: The Voice of the Arab Spring"]

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Category:1971 songs

Category:1971 singles

Category:Ennio Morricone songs

Category:Joan Baez songs

Category:Songs written for films

Category:Songs written by Joan Baez

Category:Commemoration songs

Category:Works about Sacco and Vanzetti

Category:Anarchist songs

Category:RCA Victor singles