... I have yet to find out any info on the orig song or parody to see if either has copywright...

Hey, PJ:

You'd have to check the situation in your own country, but the principle in the U.S. is that a work automatically enjoys copyright protection. You don't have to do anything to get that -- add the notice, for example. And so there might not be anything to check.

To go into the public domain, a work must have been published prior to 1923, or published since then but in certain (limited) circumstances not had its copyright properly renewed, or else be specifically placed in the public domain by the author. E.g., The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published before 1923, and so you're free to create derivatives of L. Frank Baum's characters. The 1939 film with Judy Garland still enjoys copyright protection, though, so if you were drawing your own Oz characters you'd do well not to have them look like Judy, Bert Lahr, Agnes Moorhead, etc.

F'rinstance, unless I specifically state that this posting (which is a fixed expression of my original ideas) is in the public domain and waive all claim to it, it's not and I don't. (Realistically, I'm not going to pursue action against people who reuse or create derivative works, etc.)

If you do use one of the other fella's tunes, by the way, keep in mind he might hold copyright on the music. Folk tradition is one thing, and so is satire, but you don't want to publish someone else's protected work.

Cheers,
Dave