Its music originates from an 1867 work by Jacques Offenbach with the lyrics added by an anonymous author at an unknown time in the following years.

Authorized by the Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1929, it is the oldest official song in the United States Armed Forces.

The unknown author transposed the phrases in the motto on the Colors so that the first two lines of the Hymn would read: "From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli", favoring euphony over chronology.The music is from the "Gendarmes' Duet" (or the "bold gendarmes") from the revision in 1867 of the Jacques Offenbach opera Geneviève de Brabant, which debuted in Paris in 1859.

Correspondence between Colonel Albert S. McLemore and Walter F. Smith (the second leader of the United States Marine Band) traces the tune: Major Richard Wallach, USMC, says that in 1878, when he was in Paris, France, the aria to which the Marines' Hymn is now sung was a very popular one.The name of the opera and a part of the chorus was secured from Wallach and forwarded to Smith, who replied: Major Wallach is to be congratulated upon a wonderfully accurate musical memory, for the aria of the Marine Hymn is certainly to be found in the opera Genevieve de Brabant...

[6] The Library of Congress asserts that the song was originally copyrighted in 1919 by The Leatherneck,[7] which was started by off-duty US Marines in 1917 using a donation from the YMCA, and therefore might not be considered a "work of the United States Government".

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze From dawn to setting sun; We have fought in ev'ry clime and place Where we could take a gun; In the snow of far-off Northern lands And in sunny tropic scenes; You will find us always on the job The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps Which we are proud to serve; In many a strife we've fought for life And never lost our nerve; If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven's scenes; They will find the streets are guarded By United States Marines.

For example, after U.S. military forces occupied Iceland in 1941 to guard it against possible occupation by Nazi Germany, this verse was written: Again in nineteen forty-one, we sailed a north'ard course And found beneath the midnight sun, the Viking and the Norse.