NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – It’s on highway signs and license plates and now it might get stuck in your head.

New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” motto is as ever-present as that other stern symbol of the Granite State. Now it seems the phrase coined by Gen. John Stark also will be commemorated in music, since a legislative committee recommended last week that a song titled “Live Free or Die” join “Old New Hampshire” as an official state song.

A group of musical fourth graders from Birch Hill Elementary School is behind the song campaign. About 50 students visited Concord to sing it to lawmakers during a hearing of the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee.

“Every time I sing it, I can’t help my toe from tapping,” said 9-year-old Kate Curtis.

The song, written by Barry Palmer, of Nashua, is inspired by Stark’s letter sending his regrets to a group of Battle of Bennington veterans gathering for a reunion in 1809.

“The old General answered the invitation/From soldiers under his command/I can’t make the reunion boys/I hope you’ll understand … Though I’m not there/I’d like to share these few words with you/Live free or die, live free or die/Fight the fight with every breath/There are worse things than death,” are some lyrics from the song.

Rep. David Smith, D-Nashua, the bill’s prime sponsor, said he hopes schoolchildren across the state will learn the song.

“The song is very easy to sing,” he said. “I’m 100 percent certain (the bill) will pass.”

The bill must be approved by the full House and Senate and get Gov. John Lynch’s signature to become law.

Schoolchildren are earning a successful track record when it comes to Statehouse lobbying.

Last year students from Wells Memorial School in Harrisville helped make the pumpkin the official state fruit. Harrisville is near Keene, host to an annual pumpkin festival.