A Nation Once Again was voted the world's most popular song according to a BBC World Service global poll of listeners, ahead of "Vande Mataram", the national song of India. Davis copied the melody for the chorus from the second movement of Mozart's clarinet concerto. The lyrics use a simple ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, with verses of eight lines, and alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Davis describes how he learned of ancient fighters for freedom as a boy — the three hundred Spartans who fought at the Battle of Thermopylae. The "three men" may refer to Horatius Cocles and his two companions
Of Thee I Sing in 1972 by CBS, mostly starring actors then appearing in CBS series, including Carroll O'Connor as President Wintergreen. A National Radio Theater version starring John Cullum was broadcast by NPR in 1984 and the BBC in 1984 and 1992. In the 1930s, the Marx Brothers had intended to produce a film adaptation of the musical, but they decided to make "Duck Soup" instead. Many scholars draw parallels between "Of Thee I Sing" and "Duck Soup", even going so far as to suggest that the musical helped provide inspiration for that Marx Brothers classic. A musical sequel to "Of Thee I