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{{short description|Well-known Anglo-American song}}{{other uses}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

factoids

(File:Yankee Doodle (sheet music).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1){{listen|filename=Violinist CARRIE REHKOPF-YANKEE DOODLE VARIATIONS.ogg|title=1. Yankee Doodle Variations|description=Performed by Carrie Rehkopf|filename2=Yankee Doodle (choral).ogg|title2=1. Yankee Doodle|description2=Choral version by United States Army Chorus|format=Ogg}}"Yankee Doodle" is a traditional song and nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War.NEWS, Mooney, Mark, 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' Explained and Other Revolutionary Facts,weblink 6 May 2016, ABC News, 14 July 2014, It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state anthem of Connecticut.WEB,weblink live, STATE OF CONNECTICUT, Sites º Seals º Symbols - State song,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170810210543weblink">weblink 10 August 2017, Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 4501.

Origin

File:Philip Dawe, The Macaroni. A Real Character at the Late Masquerade (1773).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|"The Macaroni. A real Character at the late Masquerade", a 1773 mezzotint by Philip DawePhilip DaweThe tune of "Yankee Doodle" is thought to be much older than the lyrics, being well known across western Europe, including England, France, Netherlands, Hungary, and Spain.Johnson, Helen Kendrick The melody of the song may have originated from an Irish tune "All the way to Galway" in which the second strain is identical to Yankee Doodle.WEB, Traditional Tune Archive,weblink All the Way to Galway (1) - Traditional Tune Archive, Tunearch.org, 2020-09-23, 2021-11-25, The Meaning of Song" in The North American Review vol.138, no.330 (1884): p.491. Retrieved 17 June 2016 from {{JSTOR|25118383}} The earliest words of "Yankee Doodle" came from a Middle Dutch harvest song which is thought to have followed the same tune, possibly dating back as far as 15th-century Holland.Yankee Doodle Dandy, The New York TimesBOOK, Elson, Louis Charles, University Musical Encyclopedia: A history of music, 2, 82, 1912, It contained mostly nonsense words in English and Dutch: "Yanker, didel, doodle down, Diddle, dudel, lanther, Yanke viver, voover vown, Botermilk und tanther." Farm laborers in Holland were paid "as much buttermilk (Botermelk) as they could drink, and a tenth (tanther) of the grain".BOOK, Banks, Louis Albert, Immortal Songs of Camp and Field: The Story of Their Inspiration, Together with Striking Anecdotes Connected with Their History,weblink Burrows Brothers Company, 1898, 44, The term Doodle first appeared in English in the early 17th century"doodle", n, Oxford English Dictionary; accessed April 29, 2009. and is thought to be derived from the Low German dudel, meaning "playing music badly", or Dödel, meaning "fool" or "simpleton". The Macaroni wig was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became slang for being a fop.J. Woodforde, The Strange Story of False Hair (London: Taylor & Francis, 1971), p. 40. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisure hobbies. A self-made dandy was a British middle-class man who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth, stuck feathers in their hats, and carried two pocket watches with chains—"one to tell what time it was and the other to tell what time it was not".BOOK, Grose, Francis, Egan, Pierce, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: Revised and Corrected with the Addition of Numerous Slang Phrases Collected from Tried Authorities, 1823, London,weblink The macaroni wig was an example of such Rococo dandy fashion, popular in elite circles in Western Europe and much mocked in the London press. 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"The Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine, inaugural issue, 1772, quoted in Amelia Rauser, "Hair, Authenticity, and the Self-Made Macaroni", Eighteenth-Century Studies 38.1 (2004:101-117) (on-line abstract). in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.In British conversation, the term "Yankee doodle dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of upper-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would transform the wearer into a noble.R. Ross, Clothing: a global history: or, The Imperialists' new clothes (Polity, 2008), p. 51. Peter McNeil, a professor of fashion studies, claims that the British were insinuating that the colonists were lower-class men who lacked masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly.Peter McNeil, That Doubtful Gender: Macaroni Dress and Male Sexualities (Fashion Theory, 1998), pp. 411-48.

Early versions

The song was a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War. It was written at Fort Crailo around 1755 by British Army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh while campaigning in Rensselaer, New York. The British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap. It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance, and they added verses to it that mocked the British and hailed George Washington as the Commander of the Continental army. By 1781, "Yankee Doodle" had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride.WEB, Historical Period: The American Revolution, 1763-1783 - Lyrical legacy - Yankee doodle song,weblink Loc.gov, May 6, 2016, BOOK, Lomax, John Avery, Lomax, Alan, American ballads and f-28276-3, 521,weblink 9780486282763, 1994, Courier Corporation, According to one account, Shuckburgh wrote the original lyrics after seeing the appearance of Colonial troops under Colonel Thomas Fitch, the son of Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch.BOOK, Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, Report on The Star-spangled Banner, Hail Columbia, America, Yankee Doodle, New York, Dover Publications [1972], 978-0-486-22237-0, 1972, According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "the current version seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman."ENCYCLOPEDIA,weblink Yankee Doodle, Online Etymology Dictionary, October 5, 2018, He wrote a ballad with 15 verses which circulated in Boston and surrounding towns in 1775 or 1776.WEB,weblink Boston Yankee Doodle Ballad - "Father And I Went Down To Camp", www.americanmusicpreservation.com, A bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on July 25, 1999,ACT,weblink Expressing the sense of Congress that Billerica, Massachusetts, should be recognized as "America's Yankee Doodle Town", June 25, 1999, H. CON. RES., 143, recognizing Billerica, Massachusetts, as "America's Yankee Doodle Town". After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, a Boston newspaper reported:{{blockquote|Upon their return to Boston [pursued by the Minutemen], one [Briton] asked his brother officer how he liked the tune now, – "Dang them", returned he, "they made us dance it till we were tired" – since which Yankee Doodle sounds less sweet to their ears.}}The earliest known version of the lyrics comes from 1755 or 1758 (the date of origin is disputed):NEWS,weblink Dandy new theory suggests 'Yankee Doodle' is now 250, Carola, Chris, July 5, 2008, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press, September 10, 2009, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110629101536weblink">weblink June 29, 2011, {{poemquote|Brother Ephraim sold his CowAnd bought him a Commission;And then he went to CanadaTo fight for the Nation;But when Ephraim he came homeHe proved an arrant Coward,He wouldn't fight the Frenchmen thereFor fear of being devoured.}}The sheet music which accompanies these lyrics reads, "The Words to be Sung through the Nose, & in the West Country drawl & dialect." The tune also appeared in 1762 in one of America's first comic operas The Disappointment, with bawdy lyrics about the search for Blackbeard's buried treasure by a team from Philadelphia.Bobrick, 148 An alternate verse that the British are said to have marched to is attributed to an incident involving Thomas Ditson of Billerica, Massachusetts.WEB,weblink Thomas Ditson, Billerica Public Library, 2016-12-27, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161228034436weblink">weblink 2016-12-28, Ditson attempted to purchase a Brown Bess musket from a British soldier in the 47th Regiment of Foot in Boston in March 1775; after a group of the soldier's comrades spotted the transaction as it was occurring, they tarred and feathered Ditson in order to prevent any such illegal purchases from happening in the future. Ditson eventually managed to secure a musket and fought at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.WEB, Dick, Hawes, Bill, Brimer, Yankee Doodle Story,weblink Billerica Colonial Minute Men, September 2, 2018, The Thomas Ditson Story, August 16, 2017, For this reason, the town of Billerica is called the home of "Yankee Doodle":The Billerica Colonial Minute Men; The Thomas Ditson story; retrieved January 31, 2013.weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090626220816weblink">Town History and Genealogy; Web.archive.org, retrieved October 20, 2008.{{poemquote|Yankee Doodle came to town,For to buy a firelock,We will tar and feather him,And so we will John Hancock.}}Another pro-British set of lyrics believed to have used the tune was published in June 1775 following the Battle of Bunker Hill:WEB,weblink What's the song 'Yankee Doodle' all about?, January 4, 2001, The Straight Dope, August 31, 2016, {{poemquote|The seventeen of June, at Break of Day,The Rebels they supriz'd us,With their strong Works, which they'd thrown up,To burn the Town and drive us.}}"Yankee Doodle" was played at the British surrender at Saratoga in 1777.BOOK, Luzader, John F., Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution, 2008, Savas Beatie, New York, 978-1-932714-44-9, 335, A variant is preserved in the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland: Or, The Nursery Parnassus, collected by Francis Douce, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford:{{poemquote|Yankey Doodle came to town,How do you think they serv'd him?One took his bag, another his scrip,The quicker for to starve him.Gammer Gurton's Garland: Or, The Nursery Parnassus, collected by Francis Douce, London: R[obert] Triphook, 1810, p. 35. See in HathiTrust.}}

Full version

factoids

The full version of the song as it is known today:Gen. George P. Morris - "Original Yankee Words", The Patriotic Anthology, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. publishers, 1941. Introduction by Carl Van Doren. Literary Guild of America, Inc., New York, NY.Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, editor. Poems Children Love: A Collection of Poems Arranged for Children and Young People of Various Ages. Dodge Publishing Company, New York, 1908. pp. 183-5.{{poemquote|Yankee Doodle went to townA-riding on a pony,Stuck a feather in his capAnd called it macaroni.[Chorus]Yankee Doodle keep it up,Yankee Doodle dandy,Mind the music and the step,And with the girls be handy.Father and I went down to camp,Along with Captain Gooding,{{efn|Captain William Gooding of Dighton, Massachusetts, commanded a militia company during the French and Indian War.BOOK, Connelley, William E., William E. Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans: Volume IV, 1918, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 2061,weblink 15 July 2019, en, }}And there we saw the men and boysAs thick as hasty pudding.[Chorus]And there we saw a thousand menAs rich as Squire David,And what they wasted every day,I wish it could be savèd.[Chorus]The 'lasses they eat every day,Would keep a house a winter;They have so much, that I'll be bound,They eat it when they've a mind to.[Chorus]And there I see a swamping{{efn|Very large; huge.BOOK, Bartlett, John Russell, John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, enlarged, 1877, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 684, 4th,weblink 10 September 2018, en, }} gunLarge as a log of maple,Upon a (:wikt:deuced|deuced) little cart,A load for father's cattle.[Chorus]And every time they shoot it off,It takes a horn of powder,And makes a noise like father's gun,Only a nation{{efn|A corruption of damnation. Immense, enormous; very, extremely.BOOK, Bartlett, John Russell, Dictionary of Americanisms, enlarged, 1877, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 419, 4th,weblink 10 September 2018, en, }} louder.[Chorus]I went as nigh to one myselfAs 'Siah's underpinning;And father went as nigh again,I thought the deuce was in him.[Chorus]Cousin Simon grew so bold,I thought he would have cocked it;It scared me so I shrinked it offAnd hung by father's pocket.[Chorus]And Cap'n Davis had a gun,He kind of clapt his hand on'tAnd stuck a crooked stabbing ironUpon the little end on't[Chorus]And there I see a pumpkin shellAs big as mother's basin,And every time they touched it offThey scampered like the nation.[Chorus]I see a little barrel too,The heads were made of leather;They knocked on it with little clubsAnd called the folks together.[Chorus]And there was Cap'n Washington,And gentle folks about him;They say he's grown so 'tarnal proudHe will not ride without 'em.[Chorus]He got him on his meeting clothes,Upon a slapping stallion;He sat the world along in rows,In hundreds and in millions.[Chorus]The flaming ribbons in his hat,They looked so tearing fine, ah,I wanted dreadfully to getTo give to my Jemima.[Chorus]I see another snarl of menA-digging graves, they told me,So 'tarnal long, so 'tarnal deep,They 'tended they should hold me.[Chorus]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.[Chorus]|char=|sign=|title=|source=}}

Tune

The tune shares with the English language nursery rhymes "Simple Simon", "Jack and Jill", and "Lucy Locket". It also inspires the theme tune for the children's television series, Barney & the Backyard Gang, Barney & Friends, and the 1960s US cartoon series Roger Ramjet. Danish band Toy-Box sampled the tune in their song "E.T".

Notable renditions

During the aftermath of the Siege of Yorktown, the surrendering British soldiers looked only at the French soldiers present, refusing to pay the American soldiers any heed. Marquis de Lafayette was outraged and ordered his band to play "Yankee Doodle" in response to taunt the British.WEB,weblink LIBERTY! . Songs of the Revolution, Pbs.org, 28 November 2021, Upon doing so, the British soldiers at last looked upon the Americans.WEB,weblink A Short History of "Yankee Doodle" - Journal of the American Revolution, Allthingsliberty.com, 6 December 2013, 2021-11-25,

See also

• Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942 musical film
• "The Yankee Doodle Boy", 1904 song

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

• BOOK, Bobrick, Benson, Angel in the Whirlwind, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997, 978-0-684-81060-7, registration,weblink

External links

{{Wikisource}}

• Library of Congress Yankee Doodle music website
• 4d5a6b Hex Color - Yankee Doodle - Color Hex Map
• The Boston Yankee Doodle Ballad
• The free sheet music

Writings

• Report on "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "America," "Yankee Doodle" by Oscar George Theodore Sonneck (1909) 2 3 4
• Famous American songs (1906)

Historical audio

• Yankee Doodle (archive.org)
• John H. Hewitt wrote the song The Fall of Mexico in 1847, which quotes from Yankee Doodle in measure 237.

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