Don't Fence Me In (song)

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"Don't Fence Me In" is a song written by Cole Porter and Robert Fletcher ^[1] in 1934. "Don't Fence Me In" was Cole Porter's least favorite song and does not have the usual Cole Porter signature.^[1]

Originally written for an unproduced, 20th Century Fox film musical titled Adios Argentina in 1934, "Don't Fence Me In" was based on text by an engineer who was also a poet, Robert (Bob) Fletcher: Cole bought the poem from Bob Fletcher for $250 and adapted it.^[1] When the song was first published, Cole Porter was credited with sole authorship, but he had essentially re-worked the poem written earlier by Robert Fletcher. Fletcher, who worked with the Department of Highways in Helena, MT, also wrote the "roadside history" placques that had been displayed along Montana's highways until the 1980s. ^[2] Fletcher had sold the song/poem to Porter when Porter had been asked to write a cowboy song for the film. Porter had wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow that. Later, after the song became very popular, Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his being given co-authorship credit in subsequent publications.

Ten years later, in 1944, Warner Bros. resurrected "Don't Fence Me In" for Roy Rogers to sing in the movie, Hollywood Canteen. Many people heard the song for the first time when Kate Smith introduced it^[1] on her 1944-10-08 radio broadcast. The song took off, was the top song of 1944-45 and became an international favorite.

"Don't Fence Me In" was performed in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944) by the Andrews Sisters with Bing Crosby.^[2] Bing Crosby entered the studio on July 25, 1944, without having seen or heard the song. Within 30 minutes Bing made the recording, which later sold over a million copies and topped the Billboard charts for 8 weeks in 1944-45.

The chorus section of the song, with musical chords in brackets, begins as follows:^[2]

Words and music by Cole Porter© & Robert Fletcher,

[C]Oh [G7]give me [C]land, lots of [Am]land

Under [C]starry skies a[Am]bove.

[C]Don't [F]Fence Me [G]In.

Let me [G]ride through the [G7]wide open

[G]Country that I [G7]love.

[G]Don't [G7]Fence Me [C]In.

Let me [C]be by myself in the evening [C7]breeze,

[F]Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood [Dm7]trees.

[C]Send me off for[C7]ever,

but I ask [F]you, [C7]please[F],

[C]Don't [G7]Fence Me [C]In.

The song was also sung in a Roy Rogers film, with film title "Don't Fence Me In" (1945): ^[3] where Dale Evans plays a magazine reporter who comes to Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes' ranch to research a story which she is writing about a legendary late gunslinger. When it's revealed that Gabby Hayes is actually the thought-dead outlaw, Roy must clear his name. Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers also find time to perform some songs, including the Cole Porter title tune (film running time: 64 minutes).

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Mike Markaverich - So In Love - Music by Cole Porter" (music CD), CD Baby (cdbaby.com), 2005, webpage: CDBaby-DFMI.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Roy Rogers - Dont Fence Me In 2 Tabs, Chords + Lyrics" (webpage spelling "Dont"), CowboyLyrics.com, 2005, webpage: CbLyrics-DFMI.
^ "Along The Navajo Trail [DVD]" (another Roy Rogers film), MoviesUnlimited.com, accessed 2006-09-19, webpage: MoviesUnlimited-DFMI.