Written and performed by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, it was one of the few popular songs of the Vietnam War years to cast the military in a positive light.

The demo of the song was produced in a rudimentary recording studio at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the help of Gerry Gitell and LTG William P.

[3] The lyrics were written, in part, in honor of U.S. Army Specialist 5 James Gabriel Jr., a Special Forces operator and the first native Hawaiian to die in Vietnam.

[5] Sadler recorded the song and eleven other tunes with Sid Bass at RCA's 24th Street Studios in New York City on December 18, 1965.

[11][12][13] On Cash Box's 1966 year-end chart, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" tied for first with "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas.

The song is heard in a choral rendition by Ken Darby in the 1968 John Wayne film The Green Berets, based on Robin Moore's book.

In The Many Saints of Newark, while Dickie Moltisanti is driving over in his car to meet Harold McBrayer for the first time, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" is playing on the radio.