The Foster song was inspired by the poem of the same title by Charles Mackay, a Scottish poet. Several of Foster's early songs are based on poems by well-known poets.
"There's a Good Time..." was written when Foster was 20 years old; it may have been written before he went to Cincinnati to work with one of his brothers, Dunning, and he may have been influenced by his friend, Charles Shivas, who became a well-known abolitionist.