Origins: Yankee Doodle - an old source

Subject: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: Tiger
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:03 AM

I got this from one of my really old songbooks, which contains lots of background material on all its songs.

From "Songs that Never Die" compiled by Henry Frederic Reddall, 1894

If the United States has no purely indigenous national anthem, she is rich in political songs that in every great crisis have borne no slight part in "firing the popular heart." The Revolution gave birth to "Yankee Doodle.'' The impending war with France, in 1798, brought forth "Hail Columbia;" the war of 1812 evoked the "Star Spangled Banner;" the late civil war was the cause of more stirring words and music than had ever before appeared in the history of a single republic. As, for want of a better, the "Star Spangled Banner" seems to be regarded as the national anthem of the United States, that will be noticed under national songs. Here we proceed to give some account of other historic and political American lyrics.

The origin of the American national air, "Yankee Doodle is enveloped in almost great obscurity as that which surrounds the authorship of "God Save the King." Though the song is but little more than a century old, the number of different accounts of its origin which are given is extremely bewildering.

In Littel's Living Age (1861) a story is told, on the authority of a writer in the New York Evening Post, to the effect that the song is sung in Holland by German harvesters, whence it may have come to America. Unfortunately for the credibility of this account, its inventor has fitted some words to the tune which are in no known language, conclusively proving the story to be a hoax, though the Duyckinks have thought it worth reproducing in their Cyclopaedia.

It is stated that in Burgh's "Anecdotes of Music," (1814) the air of "Yankee Doodle" is said to occur in J. C. Smith's " Ulysses " — a statement we have been unable to verify as no copy of that opera is accessible.

A writer in All the Year Round,(1870) alleges that T. Moncrieff had traced the air to a Fife-Major of the Grenadier Guards, who composed it as a march in the last century. It is most probable that the air was originally a military quickstep, but this account of its authorship is too vague to be accepted implicitly.

In Admiral Preble's "History of the Flag of the United States" it is stated that the tune occurs in an opera of Arne's to the words, "Did little Dickey ever trick ye?" This is an error; the song in question is in Arnold's "Two to One," (1784) and there the tune is called "Yankee Doodle."

Passing by the fanciful opinions that "Yankee Doodle " is of Spanish or Hungarian origin, we come to the traditional account of its origin, which agrees with what may be gathered from the above accounts, viz: that the tune is of English origin and not older than the middle of the last century. The Boston Journal of the Times for September, 1768, is said to contain the earliest mention of it, in the following paragraph: The British fleet was brought to anchor near Castle William; that night * * * those passing in boats observed great rejoicings, and that the 'Yankee Doodle' song was the capital piece in the band of music." It is only a few years before this that the traditional account places the origin of the song.

In 1755, during the French and Indian war, General Amherst had under his command an army of regular and provincial troops. Among the former was a Dr. Schuckburgh (whose commission as surgeon is dated June 25, 1737) to whom the tune is traditionally ascribed, though it seems more probable that he was only the author of the words. It is said that "the fantastic appearance of the colonial contingent, with their variegated, ill-fitting, and incomplete uniforms, " was a continual butt for the humor of the regular troops, and that Dr. Schuckburgh recommended the tune to the colonial officers "as one of the most celebrated airs of martial musick." The joke took, to the no small amusement of the British corps. Brother Jonathan exclaimed that it was "nation fine," and in a few days nothing was heard in the provincial camp but the air of "Yankee Doodle."

This account is said to have appeared in the Albany Statesman early in the present century; it is also to be found in Vol. III. of the " New Hampshire Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous," (1824). The words evidently date from about the year 1765. The original name of the song is "The Yankee's Return from Camp," and it begins:

"Father and went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding;
There we see the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding."

The author of the account of the song in the "New Hampshire Collections" quotes a version printed about 1790, and there are several others extant, though even in 1829 it is said that the burlesque song was passing into oblivion. It is noticeable that in the later versions of the song the early notices of "Captain Washington " are replaced by the following:

"And there was Captain Washington,
And gentlefolks about him;
They say he's grown so 'tarnal proud
He will not ride without 'em."

The tune itself seems to have suffered several changes. As a melody it has little beyond simplicity in its favor, but there is a quaint, direct and incisive character about it which redeems it from vulgarity, beside which the historical associations of the tune, connected as it is with the establishment of American Independence, should have saved it from some of the criticisms to which it has been subjected. In the words of the Hon. Stephen Salisbury, "Yankee Doodle" is national property, but it is not a treasure of the highest value. It has some antiquarian claims for which its friends do not care. It cannot be disowned and it will not be disused. In its own words:

"It suits for feasts, it suits for fun,
And just as well for fighting."

A recent writer quotes the following anecdote related by John Quincy Adams: "After the Ministers Plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the United States had nearly concluded their pacific labors at Ghent, the burghers of that quaint old Dutch city resolved to give an entertainment in their honor, and desired to have the national airs of the two treaty-making powers performed as a part of the programme. So the musical director was requested to call upon the American Ministers and obtain the music of the national air of the United States. No one knew exactly what to give, and a consultation ensued, at which Bayard and Gallatin favored 'Hail Columbia,' while Clay, Russell and Adams were decidedly in favor of 'Yankee Doodle.'

"The director then inquired if any of the gentlemen had the music, and receiving a negative reply, suggested that perhaps one of them could sing or whistle the air. 'I can't,' said Mr. Clay, 'I never whistled or sung a tune in my life. Perhaps Mr. Bayard can.' 'Neither can I,' replied Mr. Bayard. 'Perhaps Mr. Russell can.' Each confessed his lack of musical ability. 'I have it,' exclaimed Mr. Clay, and ringing the bell he summoned his colored body-servant. 'John, said Mr. Clay, 'whistle "Yankee Doodle" for this gentleman.' John did so, the chief musician took down the notes, and at the entertainment the Ghent Burghers' Band played the national air of the United States, with variations, in grand style."


Yankee Doodle
Attributed to a Dr. Schuckburgh, ca. 1765

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Goodin';
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty puddin'.

CHORUS (occasionally)
Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And there we see a thousand men
As rich as Squire David;
And what they wasted ev'ry day
I wish it could be saved.

And there was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men,
I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so very fine, ah!
I wanted peskily to get
To give to my Jemima.

And then we saw a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple;
Upon a mighty little cart;
A load for father's cattle.

And every time they fired it off,
It took a horn of powder;
It made a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.

And there saw a little log,
Its heads all made of leather,
They knocked upon't with little sticks,
To call the folks together.

And Cap'n Davis had a gun,
He kind o' clapt his hand on't,
And stuck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on't.

The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.

It scared me so I hooked it off,
Nor stopped, as I remember,
Nor turned about till I got home,
Locked up in mother's chamber.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

VERSES FROM OTHER VERSIONS I'VE FOUND

I went as nigh to one myself,
As Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh agin,
I thought the deuce was in him.

And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound around their middles.

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For' lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I streaked it off,
And hung by father's pocket.

And there I saw a pumpkin shell,
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they touched it off,
They scampered like the nation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From:
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 04:26 PM

Thanks for the awesome information. I know the words are already in the DT, (SongID=7980), but this excerpt from the text is much more detailed than what is here already.

Thanks again, Tiger.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From:
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 04:27 PM

Maybe we could get someone to change the Subject line here to Origins:, instead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 04:31 PM

you could put in a request in the help forum.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 05:56 PM

There is a version in American Memory which has some of the verses posted by Tiger (attrib. Shuckburgh) but there are more, and some are missing. I have numbered them to follow in order to Tiger's verses, but after 6, they vary to the point that I have copied them all.
2a (following Squire David verse:

The 'lasses they eat every day,
Would keep a house in winter;
They have as much that I'll be bound
They eat when they've a mind to.

6a after Only a nation louder-

I went as nigh to one myself,
As Siah's under-pinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the dence (sic) was in him.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cock'd it;
It scared me so I streak'd it off,
And hung by father's pocket.

Captain Davis verse

Pumpkin shell verse

I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather,
They knock'd upon iy with little clubs,
And called the folks together.

Captain Washington verse

He got him on his meeting clothes,
Upon a slapping stallion;
He set the world along in rows,
In hundreds and in millions.

The flaming ribbons in their hats,
They look'd so tearing fine, ah;
I wanted plagully to get,
To give to my Jemima.
(change from the feathers in Tiger's version)

I see another snarl of men,
A digging graves, they told me,
So tarnal long, so tarnal deep,
They 'tended they should hold me.

It scared me so, I hooked it off,
Nor stopp'd, as I remember;
Nor turned about till I got home,
Lock'd up in mother's chamber.

Others given by Tiger are missing in this version, which, I would guess by the illustration, is from about 1840 but no date, pub. Ch. Magnus, NY.

Thanks, Tiger, for the data that you have put together.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 06:06 PM

A version, predating Yankee Doodle and possibly dating to the French and Indian Wars, was posted by Robomatic, 10 0ct 01, thread 39958: Yankee
No real supporting data; supposedly published in a newspaper at the time of the Bicentennial.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 06:49 PM

Lewis Winstock in Songs And Music of The Redcoats 1642-1902 devotes a large part of his chapter on The American War of Independence to the song. He attributes words to Shuckburgh at around 1755. He also points out that Bunker Hill is one of the few battles where both sides played the same tune.

He also says: 'The fact that Yankee Doodle was an essentially redcoat tune was established as early as 1787 when it was recorded that "the English army at Bunker Hill marched to the insulting tune of Yankee Doodle, but from that period it became the air of triumph' (F.J.de Chastellux, Travels in North America (1787))'.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:32 PM

Does anyone have a record of the British words? Were they a variant of the song posted by Robomatic in thread 39958? (link above). References but few lyrics survived.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:47 PM

Oscar Sonneck, musicologist and then Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, investigated four songs including "Yankee Doodle". He "collected all the available data, carefully weighing existing theories and reporsts for plausibility and historical accuracy." The research was published as Report on "The Star-Spangled Banner", "Hail Columbia", "America", "Yankee Doodle" in 1907 by the Library of Congress. "Yankee Doodle" is discussed with great detail on pp. 79-156, with facsimiles of early editions (pp. 186-195). The Dover reprint edition (unabridged reproduction) was first published in 1975, and is still on the catalogue (Click here). It's of great worth, far more than its price ($5.95). To quote one of his conclusions, "Thus, to sum up, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh's connection with 'Yankee Doodle' becomes doubtful again, and indeed the origin of 'Yankee Doodle' remains as mysterious as ever" (p. 156).

Another edition (1775?; with minor differences) of "The Farmer and his Son's return from a visit to the CAMP" (starting with "Father and I went down to camp, / Along with Captain Goodin"), which musicologist Kate Van Winkle Keller transcribes HERE, is at American Memory (Click here).

Stuart Murray wrote AMERICA'S SONG: The Story of Yankee Doodle (Images from the Past, 1999) for the general reader.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 07:52 PM

The link to The Farmer and his son's return at American Memory.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 08:30 PM

Thanks for the Dover reference. (Not so cheap, I ordered other books as well). Been a few years since my last order, and interests have changed.
It was noted above that the song faded away in the early years of the 19th c. Probably the reason why many of the sheets published during the Civil War days have many of the same verses as those of the late 18th c. (not counting the parodies).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 30 Apr 03 - 09:07 PM

The earliest known version with words pony, feather, and macaroni, which consists of one verse only, is in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillip's The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842). The following is from a reprint of the 1843 edition (Singing Tree Press, 1969, p. 104; words only):

YANKEE DOODLE came to town,
Upon a Kentish poney;
He stuck a feather in his hat,
And called him Macaroni.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 May 03 - 07:00 AM

Another edition (possibly of 1775) of "The YANKEY's return from CAMP", which is reproduced in Georgia B. Bumgardner, ed., American Broadsides: Sixty facsimiles dated 1680 to 1800 reproduced from originals in the American Antiquarian Society (Imprint Society, 1971, No. 14), has the same words and illustrastion as "The Farmer and his Son's return from a visit to the CAMP" in Vera Brodsky Lawrence, Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents: Harmonies and Discords of the First Hundred Years (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1975, p. 61) except for the title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: cobber
Date: 03 May 03 - 03:07 AM

I don't have it with me but, of all places, Isaac Asimov wrote one of his "Black Widowers" mystery stories around the origins of the song and he went into a lot of details on the meaning of "macaroni etc. I can't remember the details now but it was very interesting and as Asimov was a writer who researched well as his pride wouldn't cope with people telling him he was wrong, it is probably worth finding.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: The Walrus
Date: 03 May 03 - 04:40 AM

Cobber,

I can't speak for the Asimov version, but 'Macaroni' was a fashion in the late-mid Eighteenth Century; it was an English parody of an Italian style, itself a take on an English fashion. Macaroni was was quite structured.
The 'stuck a feather in his hat' line in the common version of YD is a jibe at the sartorial naiivity of the eponemous hero.

Regards

Walrus.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 May 03 - 09:19 AM

Today in History: April 19 (at American Memory; scroll down to "Yankee Doodle")

Subject: Lyr Add: YANKEE DOODLE
From: Barbara
Date: 03 May 03 - 07:36 PM

Here's an old version of the song that is a dance tune, I think from the Revolutionary War. I got it from a friend who sang it with a DC group called the Colonial Singers, conducted by Gillian Smith.
The tune is a bit different, and is mixolydian. (can't remember if I posted this before, but couldn't find it, so here you go).
Blessings,
Barbara


        YANKEE DOODLE
        
Cornwallis led a country dance the like was never seen, sir.
With retrograde and much advance, and all with General Green, sir

They rambled up, they rambled down; joined hands and off they run, sir,
Our General Green to Charleston, the Earl to Wilmington, sir.

CHORUS:
        Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
        Yankee Doodle Dandy,
        Mind the music and the step,
        And with the girls be handy.

Green in the south then danced a set and got a mighty name, sir.
Cornwallis jigged with young 'Fayette, but suffered in his fame, sir.

Then down he figured to the shore, most like a lordly dancer,
and on his courtly honor swore, he would no more advance, sir!

CHORUS

This music soon forgets to play, his feet can move no more, sir,
And all his lads now curse the day they jig-stepped to our shore, sir!

Now Tories all what can you say, come is not this a griper
That while your hopes are danced away, 'tis you must pay the piper!

CHORUS

from DC, Jillian Smith?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: Barbara
Date: 03 May 03 - 07:43 PM

I see that dick greenhaus has posted a version of this without the Yankee Doodle chorus. Perhaps he can tell if "Cornwallis's Country Dance" is a recent or an old blending with Yankee Doodle. I did see a mention of the "Cornwallis" verse in one of the above posts, masato's I believe.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 05:17 AM

"Yanky Doodle" (without words) in James Aird's A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, adapted for the Fife, Violin or German Flute, vol. I (printed and sold by I.A. Aird, Glasgow) may have been, according to James J. Fuld (The Book of World-Famous Music), "the earliest printing of the music of Yankee Doodle." The date of publication given by Fuld is Aug., 1782.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 12:04 AM

But why macaroni?

Wikipedia says this:

The macaroni wig was an extreme example of such dandyism, popular in England at the time. The term macaroni was used to describe a fashionable man who dressed and spoke in an outlandishly affected and effeminate manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.

In British conversation, the term "Yankee Doodle Dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of high-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would make one to be noble. Peter McNeil, professor of fashion studies, claims that the British were insinuating that the colonists were low-class men lacking masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly.

---

Here's what the Traditional Ballad Index says about this song:

Yankee Doodle

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the exploits of a New England backwoodsman who joins Washington's colonial army. He sees many wonders his mind cannot comprehend. He is steadily teased: "Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy...."
AUTHOR: sometimes credited to Dr. Richard Shuckburgh
EARLIEST DATE: 1794
KEYWORDS: war rebellion humorous America
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 521-525, "Yankee Doodle" (4 texts, 1 tune, although 1 text is the Confederate version)
Linscott, pp. 115-118, "Virginia Reel" [medley of "The Irish Washerwoman," "The White Cockade," and "Yankee Doodle"] (1 tune for each of the three melodies, plus dance instructions)
Lawrence, p. 61, "(The Famer and his Son's return from a visit to the CAMP" (1 broadside text, thought to be the earliest print of the "common" version)
Cohen-AFS1, pp. 77-78, "The Yankees return from Camp" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Opie-Oxford2 548, "Yankee Doodle came to town" (6 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #109, p. 92, "(Yankee Doodle)"
Jack, p. 270, "Yanke Doodle Dandy" (1 short text)
Dolby, p. 152, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Stout 104, p. 133, "Nursery Rhyme" (1 text of two verses, the first being "Yankee Doodle" and the second "Lucy Locket/Hunt the Squirrel")
Arnett, pp. 18-19, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 3-8, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text plus fragments)
Krythe 1, pp. 3-14, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 338-340, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 71, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 659-660+, "Yankee Doodle"
WolfAmericanSongSheets, #2684, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references); #2685, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references)
DT, YANKDOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 7-8, prints parts of six early versions of the text; pp. 17-19 describes nine printed copies from before 1810 and on plate #2 shows a test and tune which appear to predate the Revolutionary War version
Gregory Walker, Mary Clapinson, Lesley Forbes, Editors, _The Bodleian Library: A Subject Guide to the Collections_, Bodleian Press, 2004, plate XIX (following p. 128), "Yanke Doodle, or (as now Christened by the Saints of New England) The Lexington March" (a reproduction of what is said to be the earliest print of the music, broadside Harding G 70(3), reportedly one of only three copies of this edition to survive)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "(Yankee Doodle)" (1 short text; tune on p. 93)
Roud #4501
RECORDINGS:
Piper's Gap Ramblers, "Yankee Doodle" (OKeh 45185, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Yankee Doodle" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(146), "Yankee Doodle ("Father and I went down to camp, along with captain Goodwin"), A.W. Auner (Philadelphia), c.1860; also Harding B 31(128), "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
LOCSinging, sb40592b, "Yankee Doodle," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also hc00037b, "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Confederate 'Yankee Doodle'"
cf. "The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme)" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the Kegs" (tune)
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (tune)
cf. "Fair and Free Elections" (tune)
cf. "Uncle John is Sick Abed" (tune)
cf. "Mrs. Brown Went to Town" (structure and some words)
cf. "Monitor and Merrimac" (tune)
cf. "Multiplication Table Song" (tune)
cf. "The Valiant Conscript" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Confederate "Yankee Doodle" (File: R249)
Yankee Doodle (Tea Tax version) (File: Morr002)
The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme) (File: R877)
The Battle of the Kegs (File: SBoA077)
Fair and Free Elections (File: FSWB284)
Uncle John Is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)
Monitor and Merrimac (File: CAFS1195)
Multiplication Table Song (File: Stou103H)
The Valiant Conscript (File: SCWF201)
The Lexington March ("Brother Ephraim sold his Cow and bought him a Commision" [sic.]) (Lawrence, p. 52)
The Times (Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 144-146)
The Embargo (Darling-NAS, pp. 342-344)
The Preposition Song (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 203)
James K. Polk campaign song: "The Democrats will be triumphant" (see John Siegenthaler, _James K. Polk_, Times Books, 2003, p. 91)
Sir William he, Snug as a flea (broadside lampooning General Sir William Howe's liason with Mrs. Loring) (see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005, p. 123)
The Chain Masters came along (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 246-247)
Yankee Song ("There is a man in our town, I'll tell you his condition") (Lawrence, pp. 34-35, and cf. p. 33)
The Procession, with the Standard of Faction ("Good neighbours, if you're not afraid, Be not in Trepidation") (Lawrence, p. 41)
Adam's Fall: The Trip to Cambridge ("When Congress sent great Washington") (Lawrence, p. 60)
As Jack the King's Commander [referring to John Burgoyne] (Lawrence, p. 71)
Yankee Doodle Expedition to Rhode-Island ("From Lewis, Monsieur Gerard came") (Lawrence, p. 79)
Original Union Song! ("The Southern rooster loudly crows") (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 118)
On the Affair Between the Rebel Generals HOWE and GADDESEN ("It was on Mr. Peroy's land") (Lawrence, p. 80)
The Dance ("Cornwallis led a country dance, The like was never seen, sir") (Lawrence, p. 93)
Yankee Song ("The 'Vention did in Boston meet, But State-Houses could not hold 'em") (Lawrence, p. 107)
("Brother Jon'than, what are you 'bout, What the nation ails you?") (Lawrence, p. 132)
Trip to Launching ("Says Bob to Dick, come let us go To Boston Town, to launching") (Lawrence, p. 137)
New Verses ("Sing Yankee Doodle, that fine tune, Americans delight in") (Lawrence, p. 141)
Columbians all the present hour as Brothers should Unite us (Lawrence, pp. 146-147)
Federalists, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence, p. 162)
Republicans, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence, p. 162)
A Song Supposed to have been written by The Sage of Monticello ("Of all the damsels on the green... A lass so luscious ne'er was seen As Monticellean Sally") (An attack on Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings) (Lawrence, p. 175)
A Song -- Composed by a Sailor ("Bad news is come from Washington, So saiors land your cargo," referring to the Jeffersonian embargo on British products) (Lawrence, p. 185)
Yankee Doodle ("A Yankee boy is trim and tall") (Lawrence, p. 199)
Corn Cobs Twist Your Hair (Lawrence, pp. 258-259)
Harrison Song ("On seventy six, our minds we'll fix," a campaign song for William Henry Harrison) (Lawrence, p. 282)
Song for the Working Men ("That Matty [Martin Van Buren] loves the Working man, No working man can doubt, sirs") (Lawrence, p. 286)
We're the Boys For Mexico ("The Mexican's [sic.] are doomed to fall, God has in his wrath forsook 'em") (Lawrence, p. 316)
The Song for All Parties ("Our fathers fought, our fathers died," by Francis F. Eastlack, 1857) (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 146)
The Yankee Boy ("A Yankee Boy is trim and tall," by Isadore Leopold) (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 181)
Yankee Doodle [No. 2] ("Ye gallant sons of liberty") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
Yankee Doodle No. 3 ("Yankee Doodle! long ago") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
General Butler ("Butler and I went out from camp") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("The Gallant Major Anderson") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, pp. 194-195)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("Yankee Doodle was the boy") (WolfAmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
(James A. Garfield campaign song against Winfield Scott Hancock, 1880) ("My brigadiers, let us forget Which side it was we fought on") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 145)
Gratulandum Est ("In Doodle Yankee Cantandum," "Qui alicujus gradus lau") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 22)
Ancient Mariner ("There was an ancient mariner -- In Coleridge is his 'Rime,' sir") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 77)
A Student's Life ("Oh, we're a jolly set of boys, As ever went to college") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 121)
NOTES: There is a reference to "Yankee Doodle" in a comic opera of 1767 ("The Disappointment, or The Force of Credulity" by Andrew Barton; see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 17 and the sheet music reproduced in plate #2), but given the references in the common version to the continental army and "Captain Washington," the piece as commonly sung can hardly predate the Revolutionary War.
Krythe gives an extensive summary of the stories told about the song's origins, including a similar piece of doggerel allegedly dating to the time of Cromwell (died 1658). Most of them must be regarded as folkloric. Similarly Spaeth, in his A History of Popular Music in America, devotes thousands of words (pp.15-21) to the known history and alleged antecedents of the song. The sum, as Spaeth makes abundantly clear, tells us very little. We must confess that we really don't know the history of the song. The Opies mention the attribution to Shuckburgh -- and say it is "now discredited."
There are certainly antecedents of the song, though; see the SAME TUNE entries from Lawrence.
Laura Ingalls Wilder had a curious version (Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 2) with a chorus I have not seen elsewhere: "And I'll sing Yankee Doodle-de-do, and I'll sing Yankee Doodle" (x2). This portion of the Little House books is fictional (Laura did not live in Wisconsin at the age described), and so we cannot date the song, but it is presumably traditional.
This "Yankee Doodle" is obviously not to be confused with the 1812 song "The Constitution and the Guerriere," sometimes titled "Yankee Doodle Dandy-O."
According to William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "Yankee Doodle" (the short "Macaroni" version) became Connecticut's state song in 1978, - RBW
I have not listed all the [broadside] variants ("Yankee Doodle No.2," "Yankee Doodle No.3," and others including an "Original Yankee Doodle"). You can find them among the Bodleian and LOCSinging collections.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40592b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging hc00037b and Bodleian Harding B 31(128) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
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Here are the Digital Tradition lyrics (mistakes in italics), from Lomax:

YANKEE DOODLE

Father and I went down to eamp,
Along with Captain Gooding;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thiek as hasty pudding.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the musie and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men,
I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so' tarnal fin-a,
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.

And then we saw a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple;
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.

And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder;
It makes a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.

I went as nigh to one myself,
As' Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh agin,
I thought the deuce was in him.

We saw a little barrel, too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little clubs,
And called the folks together.

And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound around their middles.

The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For 'lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I streaked it off,
And hung by father's pocket.

And there I saw a pumpkin shell,
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they touched it off,
They scampered like the nation.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

From American Folksongs and Ballads, Lomax
@American @war @revolution @Army
filename[ YANKDOOD
TUNE FILE: YANKDOOD
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

Subject: RE: Origins: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 12:57 PM

> Concerning the exploits of a New England backwoodsman who joins Washington's colonial army.

This somewhat misleading, since the only version anybody seems to know from actual tradition is "Yankee Doodle went to town,/ Riding on a pony...."

One stanza, that is, plus chorus.

Subject: RE: Origins: Yankee Doodle - an old source
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jul 22 - 05:01 PM

Joe - do cleanup