The song M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I was written by Ben Ryan for Frances White, who introduced it in the Florenz Ziegfeld revue Midnight Frolics in 1916, and it was used again two years later in a revue called Hitchy-Koo.
The inspiration for the song probably did not result from the difficulty of spelling the name of the river and the state, but rather from the fun of saying "M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I." As a result of the song's popularity, almost everybody can spell Mississippi correctly. Words by Bert Hanlon and Ben Ryan; Music by Harry Tierney