"Sink the Bismark" is a song, written by country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Johnny Horton

Johnny Horton

John Gale "Johnny" Horton was an American country music and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s...

 and Tillman Franks

Tillman Franks

Tillman Ben Franks was an American bassist and songwriter who was also the manager for a number of country music artists including Johnny Horton, David Houston, Webb Pierce, Claude King and the Carlisles.-Biography:...

, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 Bismarck

German battleship Bismarck

Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...

 in May 1941, during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Horton released this song in 1960, where it reached #3 on the charts. As originally released the record label used the common misspelling "Bismark", this was corrected for later releases of the song. It was inspired by the 1960 movie Sink the Bismarck!

Sink the Bismarck!

Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white British war film based on the book, the "Last Nine Days of the Bismarck" by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. To date, it is the only movie made that deals directly with the operations, chase, and...

. While the song was used in U.S. theater trailers for the film, it was not used in the film itself.

The song was later covered by The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...

 for a scene in the movie, The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers (film)

The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...

, but was cut out.

The song was parodied by Homer and Jethro

Homer and Jethro

Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. Haynes and Kenneth C. Burns , popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs...

as "We Didn't Sink the Bismarck".

Chart performance

Chart (1960)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1