When I was about 13 years old, My grandmother had to be moved out of her house, and as a result my family had to clean it up and ready it to be sold. In the attic where my great aunt whom i never knew lived we found racks of book, of which I was allowed to keep any I wanted. One of those books was a collection published in 1953 entitled "The BEST from FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: third series" Many of the stories left a lasting impression on me, but Vandy Vandy wasn't one of them, probably because at 13 I didn't have much tolerance for Fantasy.

I recently began rereading the book, and This time Vandy Vandy struck a chord with me, probably because since college I have developed an ear for Bluegrass and study History as a corollary to my degree. I Started doing web searches to see if I could find a recording of this song, or at least something more substantial about the melody so that I could convince some of my more musically inclined friends to perform it for me. Thanks to the information above I think I'll be able to do just that.

Since I have an original copy of the book from the same year it was published (with it's 35 cent price) I thought I might add some more information about the story which comes from the Editors which might help everyone here learn a little bit more about Manly Made Wellman. Like all the stories in the book there is a brief preview which I won;t bother you with here other than it does tip it's hat to "Desrick on Yandro" another Silver John story

Here's the intriguing part, and thanks for bearing with me this far. Vandy Vandy is one of two stories in the book that editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas followed with a comment which I will share with everyone verbatim. This may have been included in the original magazine which I believe because of the final line, but I think it might be of some use to everyone interested in this song...

"The Song, Vandy Vandy, was discovered by Mr. Wellman back in the sandy pine country of Moore County, North Carolina, and, to the best of his knowledge, has never been published anywhere before. From it's archaic scale-pattern and reference to the soldier gone 'seven long year' Mr Wellman is convinced the ballad refers to the American Revolution, allthough we can find no corroborative evidence for that theory. Mr. Wellman further remarks that he has never heard the name Vandy, or any name for which it might be a nickname, although the old lady who taught him the song said that her aunt was named Vandy. Since our sketchy preliminary research gives no data whatsoever either on the song or the name of its lovely heroine , we join Mr. Wellman in inviting reader comment on these matters."

Not a lot of new information here except that we know the editors of the Story in 1953 were just as confused about the origins of this song as we are now in 2009. Vandy is indeed a rare name, most searches in name directory's turn up nothing, and Google searches seem to come up with Vandy as a last name only. My father is very involved in genealogy and I do know through census rolls we can try to determine if there was in fact EVER a woman named Vandy in Moore County North Carolina. I will be looking into this and report back to this site if I do find anything as it might help us determine which niece taught Mr. Wellman the song and if there are any surviving members of that "old Woman's" family who might be able to shine a little more light onto the song and whether it was written by Mr. Wellman or does indeed have a more historical origin as he suggests.