As a young executive in the advertising firm engaged by the Defence Ministry for its nascent Total Defence media campaign, Mr Gerald Png helped write a song that has endured for more than three decades.

He recalls creating the melody for There's A Part For Everyone in under an hour. The song was released in 1984 with the launch of the Total Defence campaign.

But the comfort and peace enjoyed by Singaporeans in the mid-1980s made it a challenge relating the song even to himself.

"It is different from talking about tangible things such as military hardware. When it came to the psychological part of it (national defence), I had to think about the part I would want to play and how I could convince myself to play it," said Mr Png, 58, who now runs a restaurant-cum-social enterprise, Soul Food.

He emphasises that the song was part of a larger team effort from his company and its client. The tagline for the campaign inspired the song.

There was no immediate threat of any sort and Singapore was friendly with all its neighbours, he said, and the challenge was to write a song that would help Singaporeans see the part they played.

"There was a risk that it would become another government campaign," added Mr Png.

The intention was not to elicit "simple patriotism", but to send a message that national defence is not limited to the men in uniform.

The lyrics were intended to convey how Singapore had grown from a small fishing village, endured the Japanese Occupation and became a nation.

"The lyrics had to remain purposeful and meaningful across different age segments," Mr Png said, even as the song got across how there had been hardships faced by the country. A new arrangement was made of the song by local band QuickPick last year.