The Yankee Doodle Boy

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"The Yankee Doodle Boy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904.

The play concerns the trials and tribulations of a fictional American jockey, Johnny Jones, who rides a horse named Yankee Doodle in the English Derby. Cohan incorporates snippets of several popular traditional American songs into his lyrics of this song, as he often did with his songs.

An early hit version of the song was recorded by Cohan's contemporary and fellow Irish-American Billy Murray, who sang it this way...

[edit] Lyrics

Verse 1

I'm the kid that's all the candy, ¹

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy,

I'm glad I am,

So's Uncle Sam.

I'm a real live Yankee Doodle,

Made my name and fame and boodle,

Just like Mister Doodle did, by riding on a pony.

I love to listen to the Dixie strain,

I long to see the girl I left behind me;

That ain't a josh,

She's a Yankee, by gosh.

Oh, say can you see,

Anything about a Yankee that's a phony?

Verse 2

Father's name was Hezikiah,

Mother's name was Ann Maria, ²

Yanks through and through.

Red, White and Blue

Father was so Yankee-hearted,

When the Spanish war was started,

He slipped on a uniform and hopped upon a pony.

My mother's mother was a Yankee true,

My father's father was a Yankee too:

That's going some,

For the Yankees, by gum.

Oh, say can you see

Anything about my pedigree that's phony?

Chorus

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy,

A Yankee Doodle, do or die;

A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's,

Born on the Fourth of July.

I've got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart,

She's my Yankee Doodle joy.

Yankee Doodle came to London, just to ride the ponies;

I am the Yankee Doodle Boy.

Footnotes:

¹ "All the candy" was late Nineteenth Century slang equivalent to "Hot stuff".

² Pronounced the old-fashioned way, "mah-RYE-ah"

[edit] Source

• Library of Congress

Patriotic music of the United States

"America the Beautiful" | "Ballad of the Green Berets" | "Battle Cry of Freedom" | "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" | "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" | "For The Dear Old Flag, I Die" | "God Bless America" | "God Bless the USA" | "Hail Columbia" | "Hail to the Chief" | "The Liberty Bell" | "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" | "Over There" | "PT-109" | "The Stars and Stripes Forever" | "The Star-Spangled Banner" | "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" | "This is My Country" | "This Land Is Your Land" | "Yankee Doodle" | "The Yankee Doodle Boy" | "You're a Grand Old Flag" | "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"