Lyr Req: Why oh why

Subject: Why oh why
From:
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 11:31 PM

A great debate among friends. Some of us know a song, "Why oh why did I ever leave Wyoming..." and others think it was "...leave Ohio..." Any help will be appreciated. Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 11:45 PM

Wyoming gets my vote.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 11:46 PM

I was a Democrat in Chicago. We always voted twice!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: John Hindsill
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 07:07 PM

Actually what we have here is to songs with similar titles! "Why oh Why Did I Ever Leave Wyoming" as previously noted, and "Why O' Why O' Why-O Did I Ever Leave Ohio" which was from the musical version of My Sister Eileen or Wonderful Town (which is a version of MSE), I forget which. But I think either might be the source.---John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: GUEST,Jae
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 06:55 PM

My dad, who grew up in Wyoming, used to sing:

Why, oh why did I ever leave Wyoming
Why, oh why did I ever have to go
Why, oh why did I ever leave Wyoming
Because the sherriff and his posse are a-hunting me.

Are there any more lyrics to this?

Subject: Lyr Add: OH WHY, OH WHY, DID I EVER LEAVE WYOMING
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 03:07 AM

Copied from here

(OH WHY, OH WHY, DID I EVER LEAVE) WYOMING
Morey Amsterdam, 1946

Oh! Give me back my prairie with the cattle and wild game,
Where the hills are nice and curvy and the women are the same;
Where cowboys all yell "Whoopee!" while a lariat they twirl,
And the timber wolves yell "Timber!" when they see a pretty girl.

CHORUS: Why, oh why, did I ever leave Wyoming?
Why, oh why did I ever have to go?
Oh why, oh why, did I ever leave Wyoming?
'Cause there's a sheriff back there lookin' for me
High and low and high and low and high and low.

Back home in old Wyomin' folks are actin' mighty strange;
Since they started social climbin' how they've changed the good old range.
Our farm is now a dude ranch and there's carpet on the trails,
The cowboys wear tuxedos and the horses all wear tails. CHORUS

My Uncle Max in Cheyenne, he's honest as the sun.
He worked six years in a bathhouse and he never took a one.
The sheriff fin'lly got him and no more will Uncle roam.
They caught him workin' in a bank and takin' samples home! CHORUS

[Originally recorded by Jerry Colonna. Also recorded by Merle Travis and by Roy Rogers.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:12 PM

found on
Bernstein Leonard - Wonderful Town :

WHY, OH WHY, OH WHY, OH --
WHY DID I EVER LEAVE OHIO?
WHY DID I WANDER TO FIND WHAT LIES YONDER
WHEN LIFE WAS SO COZY AT HOME?

WOND'RING WHILE I WANDER,
WHY DID I FLY?
WHY DID I ROAM?
OH, WHY OH, WHY OH
DID I LEAVE OHIO?
MAYBE I'D BETTER GO
HOME. O -- H -- I -- O.

MAYBE I'D BETTER GO HOME.



words by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
music by Leonard Bernstein

note: on the "HOME. O -- H -- I -- O." line, one person sings "HOME" while the other sings "O -- H -- I -- O".


cheers,

YY

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why oh why
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 21 - 05:39 AM

I remember Morey Amsterdam, who wrote this song, put it together day by day on his daily afternoon radio show "Gloom Dodgers" in 1946 on WHN, the Brooklyn Dodgers radio station. I can't believe I remember these two verses that I can't find anywhere else. I think he recorded it on his first party album.

I once lived in Wyoming on a ranch so wonderful
They had steers as big as elephants and that's a lot of bull
Folks there were rather poor and their ranch it was so shoddy
They had a head of cattle and next year they'll get the body.

Now out in old Wyoming they they had a special way
To find out if a cowboy had really passed away
The had six pretty cowgirls go a dancing by his head
If he did not get up they knew for sure the guy was dead.

My horse in ol' Wyoming was such a broken nag
He had to walk on tip toes so his stomach wouldn't drag