The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away!)

"The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away!)" is a catchy song in the 1953 film Calamity Jane, written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, and performed by Doris Day.[1] It was also used in the London stage show Calamity Jane in 2003[2] and the musical based on Doris Day's greatest hits, A Sentimental Journey.[3]

The song's opening lines are:

Oh! The Deadwood Stage is a-rollin' on over the plains,
with the curtains flappin' and the driver slappin' the reins.
Beautiful sky! A wonderful day!
Whip crack-away!, Whip crack-away!, Whip crack-away!

It goes on to contain a macabre line about Wild Bill Hickok, "on his gun there's more than twenty-seven notches".[4]

In 2010, Australian singer Melinda Schneider recorded the song for her Doris Day tribute album "Melinda Does Doris".

References

  1. ^ Tom Santopietro (2008), Considering Doris Day, p. 77 
  2. ^ Lizzie Loveridge, Calamity Jane, Curtain Up, http://www.curtainup.com/calamityjane.html 
  3. ^ Alvin Rakoff gets sentimental over Doris Day, The Daily Telegraph, 13 Feb 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/4612797/Alvin-Rakoff-gets-sentimental-over-Doris-Day.html 
  4. ^ Alan Clayson (1997), Death discs: an account of fatality in the popular song‎, p. 42