"The Story of a Soldier" ("La Storia Di un Soldato" in Italian) is a song from Sergio Leone's 1966 Western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Like the rest of the film's score, it was composed by Ennio Morricone, and it is the only song in the score accompanied by lyrics. The lyrics were written by Tommie Connor.
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 entirety 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 [1]