"The Story of a Soldier" ("La Storia Di un Soldato" in Italian) is a song from Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...

's 1966 Western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Like the rest of the film's score, it was composed by Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...

, and it is the only song in the score accompanied by lyrics. The lyrics were written by Tommie Connor

Tommie Connor

Tommie Connor was a British songwriter, credited with several hit songs over his long career. Most notable among these was "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", which has been recorded by many artists, including the Jackson 5 and is among the top 25 Christmas music songs...

.

Differing versions

The song is available in two takes. The original soundtrack featured a version running 3 minutes 50 seconds which was shortened from a 7 and a half minute long take. This take was featured in its entirity in the Italian premiere cut of the film but as the film was prepared for general release the scene in question was shortened by two minutes. The shorter version of the scene was cut to a different take of the song which is presented on the expanded soundtrack released in 2001 running 5 minutes 33 seconds.

5:33 version lyric http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/faq#.2.1.4