But why macaroni?

Wikipedia says this:

The macaroni wig was an extreme example of such dandyism, popular in England at the time. The term macaroni was used to describe a fashionable man who dressed and spoke in an outlandishly affected and effeminate manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.

In British conversation, the term "Yankee Doodle Dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of high-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would make one to be noble. Peter McNeil, professor of fashion studies, claims that the British were insinuating that the colonists were low-class men lacking masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly.

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Here's what the Traditional Ballad Index says about this song:

Yankee Doodle

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the exploits of a New England backwoodsman who joins Washington's colonial army. He sees many wonders his mind cannot comprehend. He is steadily teased: "Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy...."
AUTHOR: sometimes credited to Dr. Richard Shuckburgh
EARLIEST DATE: 1794
KEYWORDS: war rebellion humorous America
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 521-525, "Yankee Doodle" (4 texts, 1 tune, although 1 text is the Confederate version)
Linscott, pp. 115-118, "Virginia Reel" [medley of "The Irish Washerwoman," "The White Cockade," and "Yankee Doodle"] (1 tune for each of the three melodies, plus dance instructions)
Lawrence, p. 61, "(The Famer and his Son's return from a visit to the CAMP" (1 broadside text, thought to be the earliest print of the "common" version)
Cohen-AFS1, pp. 77-78, "The Yankees return from Camp" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Opie-Oxford2 548, "Yankee Doodle came to town" (6 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #109, p. 92, "(Yankee Doodle)"
Jack, p. 270, "Yanke Doodle Dandy" (1 short text)
Dolby, p. 152, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Stout 104, p. 133, "Nursery Rhyme" (1 text of two verses, the first being "Yankee Doodle" and the second "Lucy Locket/Hunt the Squirrel")
Arnett, pp. 18-19, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 3-8, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text plus fragments)
Krythe 1, pp. 3-14, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 338-340, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 71, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 659-660+, "Yankee Doodle"
WolfAmericanSongSheets, #2684, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references); #2685, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references)
DT, YANKDOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 7-8, prints parts of six early versions of the text; pp. 17-19 describes nine printed copies from before 1810 and on plate #2 shows a test and tune which appear to predate the Revolutionary War version
Gregory Walker, Mary Clapinson, Lesley Forbes, Editors, _The Bodleian Library: A Subject Guide to the Collections_, Bodleian Press, 2004, plate XIX (following p. 128), "Yanke Doodle, or (as now Christened by the Saints of New England) The Lexington March" (a reproduction of what is said to be the earliest print of the music, broadside Harding G 70(3), reportedly one of only three copies of this edition to survive)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "(Yankee Doodle)" (1 short text; tune on p. 93)
Roud #4501
RECORDINGS:
Piper's Gap Ramblers, "Yankee Doodle" (OKeh 45185, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Yankee Doodle" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(146), "Yankee Doodle ("Father and I went down to camp, along with captain Goodwin"), A.W. Auner (Philadelphia), c.1860; also Harding B 31(128), "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
LOCSinging, sb40592b, "Yankee Doodle," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also hc00037b, "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Confederate 'Yankee Doodle'"
cf. "The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme)" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the Kegs" (tune)
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (tune)
cf. "Fair and Free Elections" (tune)
cf. "Uncle John is Sick Abed" (tune)
cf. "Mrs. Brown Went to Town" (structure and some words)
cf. "Monitor and Merrimac" (tune)
cf. "Multiplication Table Song" (tune)
cf. "The Valiant Conscript" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Confederate "Yankee Doodle" (File: R249)
Yankee Doodle (Tea Tax version) (File: Morr002)
The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme) (File: R877)
The Battle of the Kegs (File: SBoA077)
Fair and Free Elections (File: FSWB284)
Uncle John Is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)
Monitor and Merrimac (File: CAFS1195)
Multiplication Table Song (File: Stou103H)
The Valiant Conscript (File: SCWF201)
The Lexington March ("Brother Ephraim sold his Cow and bought him a Commision" [sic.]) (Lawrence, p. 52)
The Times (Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 144-146)
The Embargo (Darling-NAS, pp. 342-344)
The Preposition Song (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 203)
James K. Polk campaign song: "The Democrats will be triumphant" (see John Siegenthaler, _James K. Polk_, Times Books, 2003, p. 91)
Sir William he, Snug as a flea (broadside lampooning General Sir William Howe's liason with Mrs. Loring) (see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005, p. 123)
The Chain Masters came along (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 246-247)
Yankee Song ("There is a man in our town, I'll tell you his condition") (Lawrence, pp. 34-35, and cf. p. 33)
The Procession, with the Standard of Faction ("Good neighbours, if you're not afraid, Be not in Trepidation") (Lawrence, p. 41)
Adam's Fall: The Trip to Cambridge ("When Congress sent great Washington") (Lawrence, p. 60)
As Jack the King's Commander [referring to John Burgoyne] (Lawrence, p. 71)
Yankee Doodle Expedition to Rhode-Island ("From Lewis, Monsieur Gerard came") (Lawrence, p. 79)
Original Union Song! ("The Southern rooster loudly crows") (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 118)
On the Affair Between the Rebel Generals HOWE and GADDESEN ("It was on Mr. Peroy's land") (Lawrence, p. 80)
The Dance ("Cornwallis led a country dance, The like was never seen, sir") (Lawrence, p. 93)
Yankee Song ("The 'Vention did in Boston meet, But State-Houses could not hold 'em") (Lawrence, p. 107)
("Brother Jon'than, what are you 'bout, What the nation ails you?") (Lawrence, p. 132)
Trip to Launching ("Says Bob to Dick, come let us go To Boston Town, to launching") (Lawrence, p. 137)
New Verses ("Sing Yankee Doodle, that fine tune, Americans delight in") (Lawrence, p. 141)
Columbians all the present hour as Brothers should Unite us (Lawrence, pp. 146-147)
Federalists, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence, p. 162)
Republicans, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence, p. 162)
A Song Supposed to have been written by The Sage of Monticello ("Of all the damsels on the green... A lass so luscious ne'er was seen As Monticellean Sally") (An attack on Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings) (Lawrence, p. 175)
A Song -- Composed by a Sailor ("Bad news is come from Washington, So saiors land your cargo," referring to the Jeffersonian embargo on British products) (Lawrence, p. 185)
Yankee Doodle ("A Yankee boy is trim and tall") (Lawrence, p. 199)
Corn Cobs Twist Your Hair (Lawrence, pp. 258-259)
Harrison Song ("On seventy six, our minds we'll fix," a campaign song for William Henry Harrison) (Lawrence, p. 282)
Song for the Working Men ("That Matty [Martin Van Buren] loves the Working man, No working man can doubt, sirs") (Lawrence, p. 286)
We're the Boys For Mexico ("The Mexican's [sic.] are doomed to fall, God has in his wrath forsook 'em") (Lawrence, p. 316)
The Song for All Parties ("Our fathers fought, our fathers died," by Francis F. Eastlack, 1857) (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 146)
The Yankee Boy ("A Yankee Boy is trim and tall," by Isadore Leopold) (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 181)
Yankee Doodle [No. 2] ("Ye gallant sons of liberty") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
Yankee Doodle No. 3 ("Yankee Doodle! long ago") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
General Butler ("Butler and I went out from camp") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("The Gallant Major Anderson") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, pp. 194-195)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("Yankee Doodle was the boy") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
(James A. Garfield campaign song against Winfield Scott Hancock, 1880) ("My brigadiers, let us forget Which side it was we fought on") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 145)
Gratulandum Est ("In Doodle Yankee Cantandum," "Qui alicujus gradus lau") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 22)
Ancient Mariner ("There was an ancient mariner -- In Coleridge is his 'Rime,' sir") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 77)
A Student's Life ("Oh, we're a jolly set of boys, As ever went to college") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 121)
NOTES: There is a reference to "Yankee Doodle" in a comic opera of 1767 ("The Disappointment, or The Force of Credulity" by Andrew Barton; see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 17 and the sheet music reproduced in plate #2), but given the references in the common version to the continental army and "Captain Washington," the piece as commonly sung can hardly predate the Revolutionary War.
Krythe gives an extensive summary of the stories told about the song's origins, including a similar piece of doggerel allegedly dating to the time of Cromwell (died 1658). Most of them must be regarded as folkloric. Similarly Spaeth, in his A History of Popular Music in America, devotes thousands of words (pp.15-21) to the known history and alleged antecedents of the song. The sum, as Spaeth makes abundantly clear, tells us very little. We must confess that we really don't know the history of the song. The Opies mention the attribution to Shuckburgh -- and say it is "now discredited."
There are certainly antecedents of the song, though; see the SAME TUNE entries from Lawrence.
Laura Ingalls Wilder had a curious version (Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 2) with a chorus I have not seen elsewhere: "And I'll sing Yankee Doodle-de-do, and I'll sing Yankee Doodle" (x2). This portion of the Little House books is fictional (Laura did not live in Wisconsin at the age described), and so we cannot date the song, but it is presumably traditional.
This "Yankee Doodle" is obviously not to be confused with the 1812 song "The Constitution and the Guerriere," sometimes titled "Yankee Doodle Dandy-O."
According to William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "Yankee Doodle" (the short "Macaroni" version) became Connecticut's state song in 1978, - RBW
I have not listed all the [broadside] variants ("Yankee Doodle No.2," "Yankee Doodle No.3," and others including an "Original Yankee Doodle"). You can find them among the Bodleian and LOCSinging collections.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40592b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging hc00037b and Bodleian Harding B 31(128) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LxA521

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Here are the Digital Tradition lyrics (mistakes in italics), from Lomax:

YANKEE DOODLE

Father and I went down to eamp,
Along with Captain Gooding;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thiek as hasty pudding.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the musie and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men,
I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so' tarnal fin-a,
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.

And then we saw a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple;
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.

And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder;
It makes a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.

I went as nigh to one myself,
As' Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh agin,
I thought the deuce was in him.

We saw a little barrel, too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little clubs,
And called the folks together.

And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound around their middles.

The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For 'lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I streaked it off,
And hung by father's pocket.

And there I saw a pumpkin shell,
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they touched it off,
They scampered like the nation.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

From American Folksongs and Ballads, Lomax
@American @war @revolution @Army
filename[ YANKDOOD
TUNE FILE: YANKDOOD
CLICK TO PLAY
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