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"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known American song, the early versions of which date back to the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution (1775–83). It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 4501.
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The melody is thought to be much older than both the lyrics and the subject, going back to folk songs of numerous peoples of Medieval Europe.
Origin
The tune of Yankee Doodle is thought to be much older than the words, and many peoples knew the melody, including those of England, France, Holland (modern Netherlands), Hungary, and Spain. The earliest words of "Yankee Doodle" came from a Middle Dutch harvest song (which is thought to have followed the same tune), possibly dating back as far as 15th century Holland. It contained mostly nonsensical and out-of-place words, both in English and Dutch: "Yanker, didel, doodle down, Diddle, dudel, lanther, Yanke viver, voover vown, Botermilk und tanther." Farm laborers in Holland at the time received as their wages "as much buttermilk (Botermilk) as they could drink, and a tenth (tanther) of the grain".
The term Doodle first appeared in English in the early seventeenth century and is thought to be derived from the Low German (a language close to Dutch) dudel, meaning "playing music badly" or Dödel, meaning "fool" or "simpleton". The Macaroni wig was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became contemporary slang for foppishness. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisure hobbies. A self-made "Dandy" was a British middle-class man from the late 18th to early 19th century who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth, stuck feathers in their hats, and bore two fob watch accessories simultaneously (two pocket watches with chains)—"one to tell what time it was and the other to tell what time it was not". This era was the height of "dandyism" in London, when men wore striped silks upon their return from the Grand Tour, along with a feather in the hat.
The macaroni wig was an extreme example of such dandyism, popular in England at the time. The term macaroni was used to describe a fashionable man who dressed and spoke in an outlandishly affected and effeminate manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling.
In British conversation, the term "Yankee Doodle Dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of high-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would make one to be noble. Peter McNeil, professor of fashion studies, claims that the British were insinuating that the colonists were low-class men lacking masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly.
Early versions
Traditions place its origin in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War, apparently written c. 1755 by British Army surgeon Dr. Richard Shuckburgh while campaigning in upper New York. The British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap.
It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance. As per the American Library of Congress, the Americans added additional verses to the song, mocking the British troops and hailing the Commander of the Continental army George Washington. By 1881, Yankee doodle had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride.
One version of the Yankee Doodle lyrics is generally attributed to Dr. Shuckburgh. According to one story, Dr. Shuckburgh wrote the song after seeing the appearance of Colonial troops under Colonel Thomas Fitch, the son of Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch. According to Etymology Online, "The current version seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman."
A bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on July 25, 1999 (as referenced as H. CON. RES. 143) recognizing Billerica, Massachusetts as "America's Yankee Doodle Town". After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, a Boston newspaper reported:
"Upon their return to Boston [pursued by the Minutemen], one [Briton] asked his brother officer how he liked the tune now, — 'Dang them', returned he, 'they made us dance it till we were tired' — since which Yankee Doodle sounds less sweet to their ears."
The earliest known version of the lyrics comes from 1755 or 1758, as the date of origin is disputed:
(Note that the sheet music which accompanies these lyrics reads, "The Words to be Sung through the Nose, & in the West Country drawl & dialect.")
The Ephraim referred to here was Ephraim Williams, a popularly known colonel in the Massachusetts militia who was killed in the Battle of Lake George. He left his land and property to the founding of a school in Western Massachusetts, now known as Williams College.
The tune also appeared in 1762 in one of America's first comic operas The Disappointment, with bawdy lyrics about the search for Blackbeard's buried treasure by a team from Philadelphia.
It has been reported that the British often marched to a version believed to be about a man named Thomas Ditson of Billerica, Massachusetts. Ditson was tarred and feathered for attempting to buy a musket in Boston in March 1775, although he later fought at Concord:
Yankee Doodle came to town,For to buy a firelock,We will tar and feather him,And so we will John Hancock.For this reason, the town of Billerica is the "home" of Yankee Doodle,
Another pro-British set of lyrics believed to have used the tune was published in June 1775 following the Battle of Bunker Hill:
The seventeen of June, at Break of Day,The Rebels they supriz'd us,With their strong Works, which they'd thrown up,To burn the Town and drive us.There is another version attributed to Edward Bangs, a student at Harvard College, who wrote a ballad with fifteen verses which circulated in Boston and surrounding towns in 1775 or 1776. Yankee Doodle was also played at the British surrender at Saratoga in 1777.
On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts ratified the Constitution by a vote of 186 to 168. To the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon, the delegates trooped out of Brattle Street Church. Before many days had passed, the citizens sang their convention song to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." Here are the lyrics to their song:
The vention did in Boston meet,The State House could not hold 'emSo then they went to Fed'ral Street,And there the truth was told 'em...And ev'ry morning went to prayer,And then began disputing,Till oppositions silenced were,By arguments refuting.Now politicians of all kinds,Who are not yet decided,May see how Yankees speak their minds,And yet are not divided.So here I end my Fed'ral song,Composed of sixteen verses;May agriculture flourish longAnd commerce fill our purses!Full version
The full version of the song, as it is known today, goes:
Yankee Doodle went to townA-riding on a pony,Stuck a feather in his capAnd called it macaroni.[Chorus]Yankee Doodle keep it up,Yankee Doodle dandy,Mind the music and the step,And with the girls be handy.Father and I went down to camp,Along with Captain Gooding,And there we saw the men and boysAs thick as hasty pudding.[Chorus]And there we saw a thousand menAs rich as Squire David,And what they wasted every day,I wish it could be savèd.[Chorus]The 'lasses they eat every day,Would keep a house a winter;They have so much, that I'll be bound,They eat it when they've a mind to.[Chorus]And there I see a swamping gunLarge as a log of maple,Upon a deuced little cart,A load for father's cattle.[Chorus]And every time they shoot it off,It takes a horn of powder,And makes a noise like father's gun,Only a nation louder.[Chorus]I went as nigh to one myselfAs 'Siah's underpinning;And father went as nigh again,I thought the deuce was in him.[Chorus]Cousin Simon grew so bold,I thought he would have cocked it;It scared me so I shrinked it offAnd hung by father's pocket.[Chorus]And Cap'n Davis had a gun,He kind of clapt his hand on'tAnd stuck a crooked stabbing ironUpon the little end on't[Chorus]And there I see a pumpkin shellAs big as mother's basin,And every time they touched it offThey scampered like the nation.[Chorus]I see a little barrel too,The heads were made of leather;They knocked on it with little clubsAnd called the folks together.[Chorus]And there was Cap'n Washington,And gentle folks about him;They say he's grown so 'tarnal proudHe will not ride without 'em.[Chorus]He got him on his meeting clothes,Upon a slapping stallion;He sat the world along in rows,In hundreds and in millions.[Chorus]The flaming ribbons in his hat,They looked so tearing fine, ah,I wanted dreadfully to getTo give to my Jemima.[Chorus]I see another snarl of menA-digging graves, they told me,So 'tarnal long, so 'tarnal deep,They 'tended they should hold me.[Chorus]It scared me so, I hooked it off,Nor stopped, as I remember,Nor turned about till I got home,Locked up in mother's chamber.[Chorus]