Cheyenne (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheyenne was a popular and sentimental song in the early 1900s, centering around a horse. Along with songs like "Pony Boy", it became a cliché, as its tune was frequently used in Western movies and cartoons.

One version of the chorus is:

Cheyenne, Cheyenne

Hop on my pony

There's room here

For two dear

And after the ceremony

We'll both ride home as one, as one

On my pony from old Cheyenne

In the 1943 cartoon "Yankee Doodle Daffy", Daffy Duck puts on a cowboy hat and rides Porky Pig like a horse, as the exasperated pig is trying to get away from the annoying duck, who sings these not-overly-clever lyrics to the same tune:

I'm a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

Yes, sir, I am a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

I'm a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

Yes, sir, I am a cow-ow-boy

At the time the song was first popular, scandals about conditions in meat-packing plants were in the news. Billy Murray sang a biting parody about a diseased horse that was targeted for such a plant. The chorus:

Cheyenne, Cheyenne

You sick old pony

We'll take you

And bake you

And make you into baloney

And the folks who eat you won't know

You're that pony from old Cheyenne