Mule Skinner Blues

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"Mule Skinner Blues" ("Blue Yodel # 8"), a classic country song cowritten by Jimmie Rodgers and George Vaughn in 1931, and recorded first by Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman", and by many other artists since then.

The song tells the tale of a down-on-his-luck mule skinner, approaching "the Captain", looking for work. He boasts of his skills, "I can pop my 'nitials on a mule's behind" and hopes for "a dollar and a half a day".

Rodgers recording in the early 1930s was a hit. It would later become one of bluegrass music creator Bill Monroe's signature songs, when he recorded it in 1939, singing all of Rodgers' lyrics and throwing in a half-dozen traditional blues lyrics at the end.

In 1960 the Madison, Wisconsin-based duo [1] The Fendermen had a reached #5 on the Billboard charts in 1960 hit with truncated lyrics and a strong electrified instrumentation that lived up to their namesake Fender instruments.

Dolly Parton's 1970 recording of the song reached #3 on the U.S. country charts. Other versions have been recorded by Odetta, Merle Haggard, Van Morrison, The Cramps and The Grateful Dead.