Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?

Subject: Lyr Add: CINDY (Vernon Dalhart)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Feb 19 - 07:00 PM

You can hear this at the Internet Archive:

CINDY
As recorded by Vernon Dalhart, 1927.

1. Where'd you get your whiskey? Oh, where'd you get your dram?
Where'd you get your whiskey? Way down in Alabam'.

CHORUS: Get along home, home, Cindy.
Get along home, home, home.
Get along home, home, Cindy.
I'm gonna leave you now.

2. When she saw me a-comin', she met me at the door,
Shoes and stockin's in her hand and feet all over the floor.

3. I'm a-goin' to the mountains to plant a patch of cane
To make me some molasses to sweeten little Liza Jane.

4. When she saw me a-comin', she wrung her hands and cried,
And when I went to leave her, she fainted away and died.

5. Granny had a muley cow that chewed up all the corn.
Took a jaybird forty years to fly from horn to horn.

6. If I had a cow that give such milk, I'd feed her in the choicest hay,
Dress her in the finest silk, milk her forty times a day.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,Pat
Date: 29 May 15 - 02:56 AM

The earliest Cindy song on this blog is 1866 'Git along home, Cindy Jane.' from "A Light-hearted Murderer".
The earliest song it is inspired by on this blog is the minstrel song 'Gal From the South' (1850).

observation: It seems like in early versions, poor Cindy is insulted as a joke. In later versions, she is complimented.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Bert
Date: 27 Mar 13 - 11:10 PM

Here's my version, Silicone Cindy

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,Gealt
Date: 20 Mar 13 - 06:25 AM

<<<
   "Cindy, Oh Cindy,
    don't let me down.
    Send me a postcard
    and I'll be homeward bound.">>>>
http://www.secondhandsongs.com/performance/99797

This does not sound as good to my 68 year old ears as it did when I was 12. (Alas).

Subject: Lyr Add: CINDY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Mar 13 - 12:23 AM

From At the Big House by Anne Virginia Culbertson (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1904), page 72 (This is a book of animal tales reminiscent of Uncle Remus.):

...Then Tim sang a plantation song about "Cindy Ann" that ran something like this:

1. I'se gwine down ter Richmond,
I'll tell you w'at hit's for:
I'se gwine down ter Richmond
Fer ter try an' end dis war.

CHORUS: An'-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy,
Good-by, Cindy Ann;
An'-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy,
I'se gwine ter Rappahan.

2. I oon ma'y a po' gal,¹
I'll tell de reason w'y:
Her neck so long an skinny
I'se 'feard she nuver die.

3. I oon ma'y a rich gal,
I'll tell de reason w'y:
Bekase she dip so much snuff
Her mouf is nuver dry.

4. I ru'rr ma'y a young gal,²
A apple in her han',
Dan ter ma'y a widdy³
Wid a house an' a lot er lan'.

[My translation:
1. I wouldn't marry a poor girl
2. I'd rather marry a young girl
3. Than to marry a widow
—JD]

Subject: Gal from the South
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 07:21 PM

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: BK Lick
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 03:19 PM

Here's how Pete Seeger and Buffy Sainte-Marie (playing a mouth bow)
did it on Rainbow Quest. View it here. My God,they were so young and so talented!

Well, Cindy is a little gal
She lives away down south
She's so sweet the honeybees
Swarm around her mouth

Chorus:
Get along home, Cindy Cindy
Get along home, Cindy Cindy
Get along home, Cindy Cindy
I'll marry you some day

Well, I went to see my Cindy
She was standing in the door
Her shoes and stockings in her hands
Her clothes all over the floor

(Chorus)

My Cindy is a pretty girl
My Cindy is a peach
She throws her arms around my neck
And hangs on like a leech

(Chorus)

I wish I were an apple
A-hangin on the tree
An' every time that Cindy passed
She'd take a bite o' me

(Chorus)

She told me that she loved me
She called me Sugarplum
She drew her arms around me
I thought my time had come

(Chorus)

Wish I had a needle and thread
Wish that I could sew
I'd sew that gal to my coat tails
And down the road we'd go

(Chorus)

She loved me on the mountainside
She loved me on the hill
And every time she said "I won't"
Her echo said "I will!"

(Chorus)

She took me to the parlor
She cooled me with her fan
She said I was the prettiest thing
In the shape of mortal man

(Chorus)

She loves me in the summertime
She loves me in the fall
If she don't love me all the time
I want no love at all

(Chorus)

If I had a pretty gal
I'd put her on a shelf
Ev'ry time she smiled at me
I'd jump right up myself

(Chorus)

And pete made up one final verse just for the occasion.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 03:35 PM

"Cindy" ("Cindy, Cindy") is a popular American Folk song. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina. It is familiar from the chorus:
Get along home, Cindy Cindy,
Get along home, Cindy Cindy,
Get along home, Cindy Cindy,
I'll marry you some day
One of the earliest versions of "Cindy" is found in Anne Virginia Culbertson's collection of Negro folktales (At the Big House, where Aunt Nancy and Aunt 'Phrony Held Forth on the Animal Folks, Bobbs-Merrill, 1904) where one of her characters, Tim, "sang a plantation song named 'Cindy Ann'," the first verse and refrain of which are:

I'se gwine down ter Richmond,
I'll tell you w'a hit's for:
I'se gwine down ter Richmond,
Fer ter try an' end dis war.
An'-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy
Good-by, Cindy Ann;
An'-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy
I'se gwine ter Rappahan.[1]


That`s from Wikipedia. If it`s been noted before, apologies. No time and a slow computer.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 02:18 PM

Correction- Pp. 271-272 (of 262-289).

Subject: Lyr Add: AIN'T I GOIN' (Cindy variant)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 02:15 PM

Interesting variant, "Brought from Arkansas to Western Nebraska, 1882."

Lyr. Add: Ain't I Goin'

1.
Ol' Missis gimmie ham of meat,
Ol' Massa gimmie two;
Ol' Missis gimmie ham of meat
To tote to the barbecue.

Chorus 1-
And ain't I goin', a goin', agoin'!
Ain't I goin'. goin', goin'!
Ain't I goin', goin', goin'!
Down de ol' plank road.

2
Lizy Jane am a fine ol' gal,
Eyes as black as jet;
I always tried to marry her,
Never come it yet.

Chorus 2-
So get along home, Si and a Cindy!
Get along home, Si and a Cindy!
Get along home, Si and a Cindy!
Take your time and go.

3
If I was gwine to trabbel,
I'd trabbel dis worl' roun';
Ans if I was to marry,
I'd marry Manthy Brown.

So get along home, etc.

4
O, you can ride the old gray hoss,
And I will ride the roan,
You can play with your sweetheart,
But let my gal alone.

O, ain't I goin', etc.

5
O, if I had a scolding wife,
As sure as you are born,
I'd take her down to New Orleans,
And trade her off for corn.

So get along home, etc.

"The tune is reminiscent of "Lucy Long," a negro-minstrel piece popular fifty years ago. I insert one of its stanzas and the chorus for comparison with stanza 5 as given above.
[From the "Rosebud Songster"]

O, if I had a scolding wife,
I'd whip her sure's you're born,
I'd take her down to New Orleans
And trade her off for corn.

So take your time, Miss Lucy
Take your time, Miss Lucy Long;
Take your time, Miss Lucy,
O Lucy, Lucy Long!

"From the dialect, negro origin may be inferred from Stanza 1 and 3. Its persistence may be due to the idiosyncracies of the singer,- a white boy who had lived in Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri."

Jour. American Folklore, 1915, vol. 28, no. 108, pp. 171-172 (of 262-289).

Edwin F. Piper, Some Play-Party Games of the Middle West

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 01:47 PM

These songs, esp. as play party or dance songs, have a fairly constant chorus, and add verses that fit from any source.
If the beat is similar, it is difficult to separate them. "Pay your money down" etc.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford (lyrics posted far above) characterized it as a jig. Small variations in tempo are common.

Many convergences; the origin in old minstrel dance songs, cf. Massa Had a Yellow Gal.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Janie
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 02:29 AM

Some of the verses in above posts are floating verses, found, for instanc, in versions of "Bile Them Cabbage Down" and/or "Shady Grove."

I have occasionally wondered if "Cindy" and "Bile Them Cabbage Down" are related or otherwise variants of some original tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Slag
Date: 28 Oct 10 - 12:36 AM

Well, I hope this is not to far off topic as you all seem focused on the correct answer to the original question but do any remember the song, possibly on pop radio around 1957, that had as part of the refrain:

   "Cindy, Oh Cindy,
    don't let me down.
    Send me a postcard
    and I'll be homeward bound."
?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 12:11 PM

A guitar line for this is in a Mel Bay book. I used to play it in G,
just as it's in the book.
Johnny Cash and Nick Cave did a duet of this song, and they just
credited it as traditional. (Unearthed Box Set on American Records).

Two verses included are:

Apples in the summer time, peaches in the fall,
If I can't have the gal I want, I won't have none at all.

And:

Cindy hugged and kissed me, she hung her head and cried,
I swear she was the prettiest thing that ever lied and died.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 09:25 AM

Two tidbits:

Atlanta Constitution, Sept. 1, 1915, p. 6:

                      NORTH CA'LINY FOLK-SONG


O J Coffin is the author if this folk-song in The Charlotte Observer:


They haint a gal like Cindy
There'll never be but one
Th' Lawd when he had made er
Seed whut he'd went an done

O git along home Cindy Cindy
O git along home Cindy Cindy
O git along home Cindy Cindy
Down in Rockingham

Woodent merry Cindy
Tell you reason why
Necks so long an stringy
Feared shed never die

Cindy in th Summertime
Cindy in the Fall
Kaint git Cindy all th time
Wont have Cindy tall


And from the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, Sept. 15, 1886:

"A Light-hearted Murderer

Wiley Gosnell, of Madison county, has been lodged in jail at Marshall,charged with the murder of his wife. It seems that one day last winter Gosnell and one Ephraim Shelton got into a row at Gosnell's house. Both drew pistols, simultaneously. Mrs. Gosnell rushed between the belligerents just before they fired at each other, and received a shot which killed her. Whose pistol fired the fatal shot is a matter of some doubt. Gosnell was captured in Haywood county. He came into Marshall on his way to jail between two guards, gaily picking a banjo to the tune of 'Git along home, Cindy Jane.'"

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Oct 10 - 08:50 AM

From North Carolina, 1911, described as an "old Negro song":

I'll never marry an old maid,
Tell you de reason why:
Neck so long and stringy   
'Fraid she'll never die.

Git along home, Cindy, Cindy,
Git along my Cindy gal,
Way down in Yallerbam.

I'll never marry a po' gal,
Tell you de reason why:
She'll eat up all yo' rations,
An' fool you on de sly.

Git along, etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: BK Lick
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 10:33 PM

The Kathy Kallick website has been revamped -- so the link given above now needs
some adjusting. Find the Cindy sample here.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,David Neale
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 03:01 PM

Of course, 1915 — a new keyboard playing tricks on me! Sorry.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 11:27 AM

The pop group from the 60's referred to above was The Tarriers, featuring one Alan Arkin.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,David Neale
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 11:04 AM

The Ballad Index list above includes a reference to Ernest Hare & Al Bernard's recording called "Cindy," which has nothing to do with the more traditional "Get Along Home Cindy" song and its variations. The list also suggests that the earliest recording is from 1015, yet gives to additional information about such a recording: no artist, no label, nonada. Certainly the 1923 recording by Bumgarner and Davis is a good candidate for earliest recording otherwise. However, I'm sure that the song itself is considerably older.

---

Note: the Traditional Ballad Index says that 1915 was the earliest "Cindy" recording it found among the recordings it has indexed.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: BK Lick
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 12:15 AM

Tannywheeler said:

(not so sure about this next verse)
First time Ah saw Cindy
She was standin' by mah door.
Very last time Ah saw her,
She had her little bare feet on the floor!
   (cho:....)

Usually goes kinda like this:

The first I seen my Cindy
She was standing in the door
Shoes and stockings in her hand
And her little bare feet on the floor

The Kathy Kallick band does it on their newly released CD "Between the Hollow and the High Rise"
and you can listen to a sample here. (Scroll about half way down the page to track 12.)

—BK

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 09:35 PM

this is probably of relatively recent origen; I first heard it about 1971:
I'll never marry Cindy, and here's the reason why;
She blows her nose on old cornbread, and calls it punkin pie.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: evansakes
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 06:41 PM

This has just been recorded by Robert Plant on his upcoming 'Band of Joy' album (featuring Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin etc)

There's a surprisingly learned and in-depth analysis of the song on (of all places) the Led Zep website :-)

Cindy, I'll Marry You Someday

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Jon W.
Date: 22 May 06 - 12:20 PM

Thanks, all

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 22 May 06 - 11:12 AM

it's sung in that John Wayne movie where they all end up holed up in the jail, with the actor from To Have and Have Not, and Ricky Nelson. So that would make it a cowboy song from the post-Civil War days, no?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 May 06 - 12:08 AM

The website of the Bluegrass Messengers has 13 versions of Cindy.
www.bluegrassmessengers.com/fiddle.html
Their survey of recordings, if not complete, is extensive.

Subject: Lyr Add: GAL FROM THE SOUTH
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 06 - 09:14 PM

Lyr. Add: Gal From the South
Campbell Minstrels, music by L. V. H. Crosby
Firth Pond & Co., c. 1850

Old massa own'd a coloured gall,
He bought her at de south,
Her hair it curl'd so bery tight,
She couldent shut her mouth.
Her eyes dey were so bery big,
Dey both run unto one,
Sometimes a fly lights in her eye,
Like a junebug on de sun.

Chorus.
Yah, ha, ha, yah, ha, ha,
De gall from de south,
Her hair it curl'd so bery tight,
She coud'nt shut her mouth.

Her nose it was so bery long,
It made me laugh by gosh;
For when she got her dander up,
It turned up like a squash,
Old massa had no hooks or nails,
Nor nothing like ob dat;
So on dis darky's nose he used
To hang his coat and hat,

Chorus

One morning massa gwain away,
He went to get his coat,
But nedder hat, nor coat, could find,
For she had swollow'd both;
He took her to a tailor's shop,
To hab her mouth made small;
De Lady took in one long breath,
And swollow'd tailor and all,

Chorus

Sheet music at Brown University, African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/aasmTitles03.html
(List of Titles including link to "Gal From the South."

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 21 May 06 - 08:16 PM

"Went to see mah Cindy--
She lives away down south.
She's so sweet the honey bees
Swarm all 'round her mouth.
   (cho: Git along home Cindy, Cindy--
          Git along home.
          Git along home Cindy, Cindy--
          Ah'll marry you some day.)
Wish Ah was an apple
Hangin' on a tree--
'n' ever' time mah Cindy passed
She'd take a bite uh me
(cho: ...)
Wish Ah had a needle
Fine as Ah could sew,
Ah'd sew mah sweetheart to mah coat
'n' down the road Ah'd go.
    (cho:...)
(not so sure about this next verse)
First time Ah saw Cindy
She was standin' by mah door.
Very last time Ah saw her,
She had her little bare feet on the floor!
   (cho:....)

There was also a '60s pop group who did a "Cindy, Oh Cindy" to the tune of "Pay Me My Money Down"             Tw

Subject: LYR. ADD: MASSA HAD A YALLER GAL
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 06 - 07:55 PM

With the addition of the chorus, "Git along....," the minstrel descendant and Af.-Am. song "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" become 'Cindy, Cindy." The root of 'Massa had' seems to be "The Gal from The South," an old minstrel tune (see thread 46824).
When was the chorus, a great improvement, first added? Is it also descended from another?

Lyr. Add: Massa Had a Yaller Gal
White, 3A

Old marster had a yellow gal,
He brought her from the South;
Her hair was wropped so close an' tight,
She couldn't shet her mouf.

He carried her into the barber shop
To have her mouf cut small;
She backed her years all at once
And swallowed shop and all.

Her head looked like a coffee pot,
Her nose looked like the spout,
Her mouf looked like the fireplace
With the ashes taken out.

Many verses of this type, floating between African-American party songs and among the party songs of whites as well. N. I. White, 1928, American Negro Folk-Songs, Social Songs 3A-G, pp. 152ff.

The song may be derived in other ways, but this seems plausible to me.

Subject: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG DOWN TO TOWN
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 06 - 04:36 PM

The following song relates "Cindy" to "Massa Had a Yaller Gal," seemingly collected in 1876-1886 from northern South Carolina and reported in "Literary Digest," May 27, 1916. N. I. White, 1928, "American Negro Folk-Songs," p. 152ff., Social Songs No. 3.

"Git Along Down to Town" from Duncan Emrich, 1974, "American Folk Poetry, an Anthology," p. 65.

GIT ALONG DOWN TO TOWN
Henry King and Family, Visalia, CA, 1941

Boss he had a yaller gal,
He brought her from the South,
She had her hair done up so tight
Couldn't hardly shut her mouth.

Git along down to town
Git along down to town,
Git along down to Little Rock town,
Gonna set my banjo down.

Her head looked like a coffee pot,
Her nose looked like the spout,
Her mouth looked like the fireplace
With the ashes all raked out.

I wouldn't have a yaller gal
Now here's the reason why,
Her neck's so long and scrangy
She'd make them biscuits fly.

Boss he had an old gray mare,
He rode her down in town
Before he got his trading done,
The buzzards had her down.

Boss he had an old gray mare,
Her name was Brindly Brown,
Every tooth in that mare's head
Had sixteen inches 'round.

Well I hoped on that old gray mare,
I rode her through the town,
I sold that mare for fifteen cents
And I got my money down.

Git along down to town,
Git along down to town,
Git along down to Little Rock town,
Gonna push my 'bacco 'round.

Boss he had a big white house
Sixteen stories high,
Well every story in that house
Was lined with chicken pie

'Bacco chorus

Whiskey by the gallon
And sugar by the pound,
A great big bowl to pour it in
And a pretty girl to carry it around.

banjo chorus

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 06 - 03:53 PM

Note on "Cindy" in "Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection" (Library of Congress, American Memory):
""Cindy" is a hardy perennial in Southern folk music. It is popular both in the Appalachians and in the lowland South annd as both a fiddle and banjo tune, associated with an assortment of playful lyrics. It may have once had circulation in African-American tradition, though its current distribution seems to be mainly among white musicians. Henry Reed's version agrees with most old-time musicians in the upper South in beginning the second strain on the downbeat ('GET along home, Cindy, Cindy') rather than on the upbeat ('Get along HOME, Cindy, Cindy')."
Key: D
Meter: 4/4
Rendition: 1r-2r-1r-2
Phrase structure: ABAC QRQC (abcd abef qrst qref)
Compass: 8

-----------------------------------------
Note in N. I. White, 1928, "American Negro Folk-Songs," Social Songs no. 14 (p. 161).
Reposted from Auburn, AL, 1915-1916, heard at Wolf Creek, Tenn., a "Banjo Song."
White says: "Without definite evidence. I am of the opinion that this is an old banjo song of the whites. *With stanza 2 cf. the "Eliza Jane" songs, no. 28, in this chapter."

Cindy went to meetin',
She shouted and she squeeled;
She got so much religion
She broke her stocking heel.

Chorus
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy,
Fare you well.

I went up to the mountain
For to get a load of cane
To make a jug of 'lasses
Sweeter 'n Liza Jane

GET ALONG, LIZA JANE
Reported from Greensboro, NC, 1915-1916, as heard in eastern and central NC.

Ask Miss Liza to hab me,
Says "Law, ain't you a shame?"
Ask Miss Liza to hab me,
Says "Git along, Liza Jane."
----------------------------------------------------

Randolph ("Ozark Folk Songs") obtained the song in 1930 from Mansfield, MO, no. 564A, vol. 3. with music 2/4.

Lips a-like a cherry,
Cheeks a-like a rose,
Now I love my pretty little gal
God in heaven knows!

Cindy's got religion,
She had it once before,
But when she hears my old banjo
She's the first one on the floor!

She told me that she loved me,
She called me sugar plum,
She throwed her arms around my neck
Like a grapevine round a gum.

Finger ring, finger ring,
Shinin', Glitterin' gold,
How I love my pretty little gal
It never can be told!

I wish I had a needle an' thread,
As fine as I could sew,
I'd pin it to the tail of my coat
An' down the road I'd go.

Among the references given, Piper (JAFL 28, 1915) is the earliest cited.
-------------------------------------

Bascomb Lamar Lunsford, Buncombe Co., sang a version (no date given) that is included in Brown, North Carolina Folk-Lore, vol. 3 (2/4 music and 1st verse in vol. 5, no. 404). Probably similar to the version recorded by Lunsford for Brunswick, 1928:

Oh, where'd ye git yer licker,
Where'd ye git yer dram?
I got it of a nigger
Way down in Rockin'ham.

Oh, git along home, Cindy, Cindy,
Git along home, Cindy, Cindy,
Git along home, Cindy,
Cindy'll marry you some time.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 May 06 - 01:06 PM

So, is that all the farther we can go back, to the early twentieth century?
I thought this song would be much older.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 20 May 06 - 11:50 AM

My first name is Cynthia. When I was a kid and we were doing stuff that included Pete Seeger, he would usually get around to singing that song to me. Usually just before Mama put me to bed under the coats. Love it.                           Tw

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 May 06 - 02:07 AM

Hi, Jon - The Traditional Ballad Index has quite a lengthy entry on this song. The earliest citation they could find is 1915, so the song is likely to be older than that.
-Joe-

---

Cindy

DESCRIPTION: "You ought to see my Cindy, She lives 'way down south, She's so sweet the honeybees Swarm around her mouth. Get along, Cindy, Cindy...." Describes attempts to court Cindy, as well as her occasional extravagances. Many floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: love courting playparty religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 564, "Get Along Home, Cindy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 404, "Cindy" (6 texts, mostly short, with the usual load of floating verses; some may be other songs with this chorus tacked on); also 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the "C" text has the chorus of "Cindy")
Fuson, p. 172, "Liza Jane" (1 text, probably a version of "Po' Liza Jane" but with a "Cindy...Cindy Jane" chorus)
Lomax-FSUSA 28, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 119, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 899-900, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 61, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 35, "Cindy" (1 text)
DT, CIND
Roud #836
RECORDINGS:
Gene Austin, "Cindy" (c. 1927; on CrowTold01)
Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies, "Get Along, Cindy" (Bluebird B-5654, 1934)
W. E. Claunch, "Cindy" (AFS, 1939; on LC02)
Bill Collins [pseud. for Gene Austin], "Cindy" (Victor 20873, 1927; this may be the same recording as the Gene Austin cited above)
Vernon Dalhart, "Cindy" (Challenge 405, c. 1928)
Lawrence & Vaughan Eller, "Cindy in the Summertime" (on FolkVisions1)
Ford & Grace, "Kiss Me Cindy" (OKeh 45157, 1927; on CrowTold02)
Ernest Hare & Al Bernard, "Cindy" (OKeh 40011, 1924; rec. 1923)
Hill Billies, "Old Time Cinda" (OKeh 40294, 1925); "Cinda" (Vocalion 5025/Brunswick 105 [as Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters], 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "Cindy" (Supertone 9568, 1929) (Brunswick 464, 1930)
Lulu Belle & Scotty "Get Along Home Cindy" (Conqueror 8594, 1935; Melotone 6-03-59, 1936; Vocalion 05487, 1940)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Get Along Home, Cindy" (Brunswick 228, 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Kiss Me Cindy" (Bluebird B-7289, 1937)
Shorty McCoy "Cindy" (Bluebird 33-0511, 1944)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Cindy" (on NLCR04)
Pickard Family, "Cindy" (Coast 253, n.d.)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Get Along Home, Miss Cindy" (Victor 21577, 1928)
Poplin Family, "Cindy Gal" (on Poplin01)
Frank Proffitt, "Cindy" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "Cindy" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jinny Go Round and Around" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy"
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Get On Board, Little Children" (tune)
cf. "I Met a Handsome Lady" (lyrics)
cf. "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Early Monday Morning" (floating lyrics)
File: LxU028

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: Origins: 'Cindy Cindy' - how old is it?
From: Jon W.
Date: 20 May 06 - 01:09 AM

Anyone know how old "Cindy Cindy" is and what are possible predecessor songs?

Thanks,
Jon W.