Billy Don't Be a Hero Billy Don't Be a Hero "Billy Don't Be a Hero" is a 1974 pop song that was first a UK hit for Paper Lace and then, some months later, a US hit for Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods. The song was written and composed by two British songwriters, Mitch Murray and Peter Callander. Because the song was released in 1974, it was associated by some listeners with the Vietnam War, though the war to which it actually refers is never identified in the lyrics. It has been suggested that the drum pattern, references to a marching band leading soldiers in
Just a Little Lovin' did record two other compositions by "Wishin' and Hopin'" writers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, one of them the 1967 Dusty Springfield hit "The Look of Love" and the other "Anyone Who Had a Heart" which had itself been a "cover" for Springfield, being one of a number of U.S. hits recorded for her 1964 debut album "A Girl Called Dusty". (A U.S. hit for Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" would be a #1 hit in Springfield's native UK in February 1964 for Cilla Black.) Two songs remade by Lynne she was familiar with but not as Dusty