Yankee Doodle Dandy
DESCRIPTION: "I have a daughter and you'd think she was a lady.... She has a sweetheart comes to see her nights... And the only tune he whistles right is 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'" The young man causes so much trouble that the fathers vows to drive him off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: music courting humorous father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 76, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1 text)
Roud #21717
NOTES [101 words]: I haven't been able to locate a source for this song, but it certainly sounds as if it originated on stage.
Reading this song, I couldn't help but think of Ulysses S. Grant, who was tone-deaf. He once commented that he knew only two tunes: One was "Yankee Doodle" and the other wasn't. What's more, according to William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U. S. Presidents 1993 edition, Barricade Books, p. 263, the former Julia Dent's parents disapproved of her marriage to Grant. Not quite the same situation as in this song, but you wonder if it didn't kick around in the author's mind a little. - RBW
File: Dean076A
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