Origins: Polly Wolly Doodle

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 10:47 AM

One line works, but the next one doesn't
Sing polly wolly doodle all the day.
They're in four-four time, so march right along
Sing etc.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Jim McLean
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 06:12 AM

Sorry, I meant the VERSE melody!

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Jim McLean
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 06:11 AM

I can hear 'D'ye ken John Peel' in the chorus melody.

Subject: ADD Version: Polly Wolly Doodle (Shirley Temple)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 12:42 AM

Golly Gee, no one has posted the Shirley Temple version.

Polly Wolly Doodle
(Shirley Temple)

Oh I eat watermelon and I have for years
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day
I like watermelon but it wets my ears
Sing etc.
Maybe grass tastes good to a moo cow's mouth
Sing etc.
But I like chicken cuz I'm from the South
Sing etc.

Chorus:
Fare thee well, fare thee well,
Mr. Gloom be on your way
If you think you're gonna worry
You can stop it in a hurry
Sing polly wolly doodle all the day.

Oh the woodpecker pecks till he gets his fill
Sing etc.
But the woodpecker pays cuz it's on his bill
Sing etc.
Oh I feed my pigs from molasses yam (jam?)
Sing etc.
So they should be sweeter than they really am
Sing etc.

Chorus
Fare thee well, fare thee well
Mr, Gloom be on your way
Though you haven't any money
You can still be bright and sunny
Sing polly wolly doodle all the day.

Oh, I hate to hear a chocolate drop
Sing etc.
But I like to hear a lollipop
Sing etc.
Everything went wrong but it turned out right
Sing etc.
The skies were grey but the future's bright
Sing etc.

Chorus
Fare thee well, fare thee well
Mr. Gloom be on your way
Never listen to the devil
Simply be a little rebel
Sing polly wolly doodle all the day!

A polly is a parrot, we all know well
But just what a wolly is, I can't tell
I wouldn't know a doodle, if one came along
But polly wolly doodle, makes a darn good song!

Chorus

Polly Wolly Doodle

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 06:28 PM

Seven verses and chorus with sheet music are found in "Heart Songs, Dear to the American People," World Syndicate Co., 1909, pp. 436-437. They are the usual ones.
The song doesn't seem to be represented in school songbooks until the 1930s.
I remember Burl Ives sang it, but it is not in his "Burl Ives Songbook," 1953.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 04:32 PM

Hey, Pete - can we talk you into posting the version you sing?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 04:28 PM

Well, Gus Meade's earliest date is 1882 in the "Yale Songster" so maybe Yale WAS aheard of Harvard if GUEST's datee of 1883 is correct. WHen I sing it I use a conglomerate of verses from Harry C. Browne (CO A2502) and the Skillet Lickers (CO 15200-D) with some bowlderization for political correctness.
Pete Peterson
PhD. Yale 1970 (but that was in another life)

Subject: ADD Version: Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 03:27 PM

SING POLLY WOLLY DOODLE
'Negro Song.' From Mrs. Nilla Lancaster, Wayne County, North Carolina; without date.

I'm going down South for to see my gal,
Singing Polly Wolly duoll doll da.
My Sal is a spunky gal,
Singing Polly Wolly duoll doll da.

Chorus:
Farewell, farewell, my fair fae,
Goin' to Louisiana to see my Susiana,
Singing Polly Wolly duoll doll da.

I went to the river and couldn't get across, etc.,
Jumped on a nigger, thought he was a hoss, etc.

Grasshopper sitting on a railroad track, etc.,
Picking his teeth with a carpet tack, etc.

I went to bed, but it was no use, etc.,
My feet stuck out for the chicken roost, etc.

That chicken sneezed so hard with the whooping cough, etc.,
He sneezed his head and tail right off, etc.

Source: Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume III, #462

Notes: Probably of minstrel origin, this song has been familiar to one of the editors of this volume since his boyhood days in Mississippi, where he knew the refrain as 'Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all day' and stanzas much like those below. There is a printed version of it in Spaeth's Read 'Em and Weep, 92; another in Plantation Songs, Arranged for Baritone Solo and Chorus of Mixed Voices with Pianoforte Accompaniment by Stanford Robinson (London and Philadelphia, c. 1928), pp. 14-15. With stanza 2 compare No. 193, above.

#193 is a jingle. Here's the entire text:

Went to the river and I couldn't get across.
Jumped on a nigger's back and thought he was a horse.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 03:10 PM

Maybe we can glean some more lyrics out of the sources cited in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Polly Wolly Doodle

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal, Sing polly wolly doodle all day...." Sal is described in nonsense terms ("curly eyes and laughing hair"). Floating verses may describe the difficult journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Harvard "Student's Songs")
KEYWORDS: love courting nonsense floatingverses campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 462, "Sing Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 462, "Sing Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 42, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 verse of a shanty version)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 82-83, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 274, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 43-45, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 436, "Polly-wolly-doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #162, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 434-435, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 118, 175, 240, "288, Polly Wolly Doodle" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 45, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 16, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 18, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POLYWOLY
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 78-79, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11799
RECORDINGS:
Walter Coon & his Joy Boys, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Gennett 7079/Champion 15896/Supertone 9680 [as "Polly Wally Doodle"], 1930; Superior 2671 , 1931; rec. 1929)
Vernon Dalhart, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Edison N-20001, 1929)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Vocalion 05296, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Polly Wolly Doodle All Day" (on LonesomeValley)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Polly Woddle Doo" (Columbia 15200-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fiddler's Bitch" (tune)
cf. "The Golden Axe" (floating verse)
cf. "Pep (The Peppiest Camp)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Fiddler's Bitch (File: RL346)
The Big Fat Boss and the Workers (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 250-251)
Our Cow ("We've got a cow down on our farm, Moo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!") (Harbin-Parodology, #76, p. 24)
Little Red Box ("O, I wish I had a little red box To put Mister ??? in") (Harbin-Parodology, #211, p. 54)
File: SRW082

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Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 05:32 PM

In Fuld's 'The Book of World Famous Music' he says the song first appeared in the 1883 edition of Harvard's 'Student Songs', and is not in the 1880 or 1881 edition. No author credited. Book compiled and edited by William H. Hills and copyrighted May 14, 1883, by Moses King.

Fuld - 'is believed to be American in origin, perhaps Negro or minstrel'.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 02:38 PM

tsk...and I thought it was derived from a parrot who lived with an Italian famile and developed a fondness for uncooked pasta...."Polly Wanta Noodle"

no, actually, I didn't think that...I just needed to purge myself of the line, before it sat there are festered in my brain...

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 01:31 PM

Lou'sana was French (with Spanish entrepreneurs) until the US of A bought it, so the chorus would have had to be different if the song went back to revolutionary war days. Or would I be gastronomically correct (if incorrect in other ways) in saying polly wolly doodle was an indirect reference to the French?

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 09:22 AM

Yeah Mole, it appears we are both a bit below standards in the scholarship department.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: LR Mole
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 08:51 AM

I thought the authorship was credited to noted Indo-European minstrel Pahli Walidudl, who was frequently accompanied by sitar virtuoso Ravi Oli. But maybe that was poor scholarship on my part.

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Genie
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 01:39 AM

I read somewhere -- maybe at the Public Domain website or at a site devoted to traditional American songs -- that PWD goes back to the Revolutionary War.
If I figure out where I got that info, I'll update it. Maybe someone else knows, too.

Ewan, Do you have the words to Malaika? I know it goes, "Malaika, na ku penda(sp?), Malaika," ( "I love you, Malaika"). I'd love to have all the words and the translation.

Genie

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Click for Malaika

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 09 Nov 01 - 01:12 AM

Ah...Joe...Nairobi in the 60's....a major "listening post" ......by any chance did you know Kimsey and his family?

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 07:05 PM

Hmmmm.....I see I've entered the tradition. Wasn't Polly the illegitimate daughter of some yankee named Macaroni? I think he went by Mac Doodle. Anyway, he ended up paying a lot in child support and lost his pony when it was repoed by the bank.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 06:46 PM

This thread is over 3 yars old but there were no answers. Maybe there is none, but PWD was first noted in 1880 in Harvard Student songs- Traditional Ballad Index, csufresno.
Here are some verses of the dozens not in DT

Behind the barn, down on my knees
Sing Polly wolly doodle all the day
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze,
Polly etc.

He sneezed so hard with the whooping cough, etc.
He sneezed the head and the tail right off, etc.

Oh, a grasshopper sittin' on a railroad track, etc.
A-pickin' his teeth with a carpet tack, etc.

I came to a river an' couldn't get across, etc.
I jumped on a gator and thought he was a hoss, etc.

Oh, a cockroach perched on the Sunday roast, etc.
Said old *Catspaw is a mighty fine host, etc.

(This old *farmer, in expurgated versions)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: polly wolly doodle
From: LR Mole
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 02:55 PM

I always thought Pali Walidudl was a tabla player; played ragas with Ravi Oli.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: polly wolly doodle
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 20 Feb 01 - 01:12 PM

Thanks for that info, leeneia ! Here's another line that may amuse folk on this thread: it's from Joyce's Finnegans Wake: "...for you've jolly well dawdled all the day ..." Smilez Dennis

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: polly wolly doodle
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 10:38 PM

Oh, I went to bed but it weren't no use.../My feet stuck out for a chicken roost....

When I was little, I marveled at how many girlfriends this fellow had. Sal, Polly, Faye (fey). Then I looked up fairy in the dictionary and learned that in Stephen Foster's time, "fairy" was black people's slang for a white person.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: polly wolly doodle
From: fat B****rd
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 02:50 PM

The usuual verse, went down south etcetc

There's a bullfrog sitting by the railroad track
Polly etc etc
Picking his teeth with a carpet tack
Polly etc etc
Fare thee well etc etc

Well I went to the river and I couldn't get across
Polly etc etc
So I floated in a fish 'cos I thought it was a horse
singing Polly wolly etc

Maybe not as traditional as some of our catters would like but I hope it's of some use. All the best
fB

Subject: add version: polly wolly doodle^^^
From: Amos
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 01:39 PM

Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
My Sally am a spunky gal,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.

Cho: Fare thee well, Fare thee well,
Fare thee well, my fairy fay,
For I'm goin' to Lousiana, For to see my Susyanna,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.

Oh, my Sal, she am a maiden fair,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
With curly eyes and laughing hair,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.^^^

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This is the version in the DT
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: polly wolly doodle
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 01:32 PM

Isn't it pretty much like the one in the DigiTrad?

Spaw

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POLLY WOLLY DOODLE

Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
My Sally am a spunky gal,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.

Cho: Fare thee well, Fare thee well,
Fare thee well, my fairy fay,
For I'm goin' to Lousiana, For to see my Susyanna,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.

Oh, my Sal, she am a maiden fair,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
With curly eyes and laughing hair,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.

filename[ POLYWOLY
TUNE FILE: POLYWOLY
CLICK TO PLAY
JY

Popup Midi Player

Subject: polly wolly doodle
From: Deskjet
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 01:27 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to polly wolly doodle as sung by Burl Ives?

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Ewan McV
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 06:32 PM

Joe Offer

You are confirming my thoughts, that PWD is maybe an actual trad song - i.e. nobody knows who wrote it. Mind you, we could both probably name a half dozen songs that we've heard called trad because no-one bothered to look in a book. My favourite is a Swahili pop song called Malaika (click) which was in the Top Twenty in Nairobi when I lived there in 1963, written by a guy called Fadhali William, I think. It keeps appearing as a traditional Tanzanian lullaby, and FW never gets any royalties, because the singers claim the arrangement. I've read that in the Swedish copyright index there are twenty different claimed composers of Malaika - in Swahili! The composers include all four members of Abba. It's a jolly old world.

Thanks for looking. Ewan

Subject: RE: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 02:24 PM

I visited the Stephen Foster Memorial in Florida last fall and brought home a list of Foster's published works. "Polly Wolly Doodle" isn't on the list. In the process of looking for information, I found this site (click here). Take a look.
I found the song in several books, but none had a songwriter listed or any historical notes. It wasn't even in the Burl Ives Songbook, if you can believe that. The only remark I found anywhere was in the Fireside Book of Fun & Game Songs, which said it was a "popular minstrel song." I coulda guessed that - my guess is it was written in the mid-1900's by a white male, for a minstrel show.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Who wrote Polly Wolly Doodle
From: Ewan McV
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 08:00 AM

I'm exploring the increasingly confusing links between old British and American songs. I'd have a bunch of help re some of Stephen Foster's songs and their possible traditional sources of inspiration.

Now I'm scratching my grey matter raw trying to recall PWD - did Foster write it, or who?

Please advise.