Wait for the Wagon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wait for the Wagon is an American folk song first popularized in the early 1850s.
The first printing of Wait for the Wagon was in New Orleans, Louisiana, with an 1850 copyright, and music attributed to Wiesenthal and the lyrics to "a lady". This song, however, does not bear much similarity with the known traditional song.
The song with common lyrics and music was first published in May of 1851 in Baltimore, Maryland, and it was attributed to George P. Knauff. It is agreed upon that R. Bishop Buckley (1810 - 1867) probably first performed the song and Knauff arranged it as a composition. Wait for the Wagon was also published in London circa 1847 - 1869.
Knauff was a music teacher in Virginia, who compiled popular and folk fiddle tunes into a large compendium, Virginia Reels (1839). Buckley was born in England and came to America as a young man and, with his father and two brothers, formed the Buckley Serenaders. This minstrel show toured America and Europe.
The song became a hit in the Eastern United States, and other minstrel troupes added it to their own performances. Through them, it spread to the South and West. It remained particularly popular in the Ozarks and Mississippi through the Civil War.
The first verse of Wait for the Wagon:
- Will you come with me my Phyllis, dear, to yon blue mountain free,
- Where the blossoms smell the sweetest, come rove along with me.
- It's every Sunday morning when I am by your side,
- We'll jump into the wagon, and all take a ride.
The chorus is:
- Wait for the wagon, wait for the wagon,
- Wait for the wagon and we'll all take a ride.
[edit] References
- Fuld, James (1966).The Book of World Famous Music, Classical, Popular and Folk.
- Raph, Theodore (1964). The American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications.
