Genie,

"Don't Fence Me In" was written by Cole Porter in 1935 for a movie soundtrack, but it was not used, and "sat on the shelf" at Harms Music for ten years before it was recorded and made popular by Roy Rogers--The lyrics were reworked from another song of the same name, written by one Bob Fletcher, a film studio asked Porter to re-work it, and Fletcher assigned him the rights to the lyrics, which he tighted up considerably and accompanied with a new melody--When the song was officially published, Fletcher's name inadvertantly was left off, but Porter immediately had the error corrected--

Claims that Porter did not write the song occasionally come up, but Porter always shared the credit for the lyrics with Fletcher--I have a copy of Fletcher's original lyrics though, and Porter's editing changed the feel considerably--


Probably more than you ever needed or wanted to know;-)