Cindy (folk song)

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Cindy is a rollicking American Folk song and frolic tune. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina.

As with many folk songs, each singer was free to add verses, and many did. Cindy was a particular favorite for this, with many ribald verses added, attesting to Cindy's amorous inclinations.

A bowdlerized version of the song was eventually produced with music and lyrics by Kaye, Weisman, and Fuller, and called "Cindy, Cindy". That version was recorded by such performers as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon and others. Dr. Mack Wilberg's choral arrangement of the piece was written for four-hand piano, double eight-part choirs, a string bass, xylophone, and a score of quintessential Americana instruments to supplement the melody during the arrangement's hoedown section. This arrangement is available for any choir to learn and perform, although Wilberg also wrote a special arrangement to be performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The choral parts are the same, but the accompaniment has been rewritten for full orchestra (specifically the Orchestra at Temple Square).

Some of the folk song verses:

You ought to see my Cindy

She lives away down south

She's so sweet the honeybees

Swarm around her mouth.

The first time I saw Cindy

She was standing in the door.

Her shoes and stockings in her hands,

Her clothes all over the floor.

I wish I were an apple

A-hangin on the tree

An' every time that Cindy passed

She'd take a bite o' me

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!"

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

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.

My Cindy is a pretty girl

My Cindy is a peach;

She throws her arms around my neck

And hangs on like a leech.

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.

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:

Get along home, Cindy Cindy

Get along home, Cindy Cindy

Get along home, Cindy Cindy

I'll marry you some day.

(or I'm gonna leave you now)

Some of the verses made fun of Cindy's appearance, painting her as having buck teeth, being bowlegged, while some painted her as a knockout. Here's an unusual verse about her eyes:

Cindy, she has one blue eye

She also has one brown

One eye sees the countryside

The other watches town

The theme of Cindy and religion had many variants. Often a singer would include more than one verse, especially when the singer was painting a vision of a lusty mountain girl struggling to conform to the ideals taught by the country circuit rider:

Now, Cindy's got religion,

She wheeled round and round

She got so full of glory

She knocked the preacher down

My Cindy's got religion,

She had it once before

When she heered my old banjo

She's the first one on the floor.

Cindy got religion

She really went to town;

Got so full of glory, Lord,

Shook her stockin's down.

My Cindy's got religion,

I'll tell you what she done:

She went up to the minister

Chawed her chewin' gum.

There were variations in the music as well as the lyrics. This MIDI version was recorded by J. R. Thompson. This page offers a link to an MP3 recording by Wayne Potash, and this page offers a link to an MP3 by Robert Beaser.

In the early and middle 20th century, Cindy was included in the songbooks used in many elementary school music programs as an example of folk music - without the bawdy verses.