The following extended quote is taken from "The American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites" by Theodore Raph (Dover, 1986). The book was originally published in 1964 as "The Songs We Sang: A Treasury of American Popular Music"

"This is the song of a fox hunt, a sport originating in the British Isles around 1700 and still quite popular up to the present time. John Pel was a real person, the English novelist John George Whyte-Melville, formerly a captain in the Coldstream Guards. He was an expert hunter during the middle 1800's and was considered the laureate of fox hunting. ON the occasion of his death on the hunting field in 1854, Whyte-Melville's friends attended the funeral after which they went for drinks. Here was the setting for the birth of "D'Ye Ken John Peel". After a couple of drinks one of his close friends , John Woodcock Graves, scribbled some verses in tribute to Whyte-Melville. He used the melody of an old folk song "Bonnie Annie." It is very likely the original "Bonnie Annie" arrived in America shortly after the War of 1812, but only a small handful of people were attracted to it. Years later, when Graves' version appeared, interest picked up to some extent. Many glee clubs and college students adopted the song, and with the aid of folk-song enthusiasts the song was kept very much alive well into this century. However, it was not until the mid-1940's that this melody became nationally popular om the from of the Pepsi Cola jingle frequently played over the radio. After the jingle was discontinued the catchy melody was still remembered and enjoyed by millions, and thus the original "John Peel" lyrics were restored."

I cannot attest to the veracity of this tale, but it seems too elaborate with precise names to be totally apocraphal. One small inconsistency is the last line stating the original John Peel lyrics were restored when the original lyrics were really Bonnie Annie. Anybody know the Pepsi jingle?

rich r