"Old Black Joe" is a

parlor song Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and piano, pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a resu ...

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

(1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1860. Ken Emerson, author of the book ''Doo-Dah!'' (1998), indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in the home of Foster's father-in-law, Dr. McDowell of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. The song is not written in dialect. Emerson believes that the song's "soft melancholy" and its "elusive undertone" (rather than anything musical), brings the song closest to the traditional African-American spiritual. Harold Vincent Milligan describes the song as "one of the best of the Ethiopian ontemporary parlance for blackface minstrel songssongs ... its mood is one of gentle melancholy, of sorrow without bitterness. There is a wistful tenderness in the music."

Jim Kweskin Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut) is an American folk, jazz, and blues musician, most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob S ...

covered the song on his 1971 album ''Jim Kweskin's America''. The song has sometimes been recorded as "Poor Old Joe", including by

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...

who recorded it several times, for example in 1928 and 1930. Other notable recordings were by

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

(recorded June 16, 1941),

Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis mad ...

(1959) and

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

(recorded July 13, 1950).

Lyrics

Adaptations

Thomas Dixon, Jr. Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. (January 11, 1864 – April 3, 1946) was an American White supremacy, white supremacist, Southern Baptists, Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Referred to as a "profess ...

's one-act play ''Old Black Joe'' was produced in New York in 1912. * Roy Harris made a choral adaptation of the song: ''Old Black Joe'', A Free Paraphrase for full chorus of mixed voices a capella (1938). * In July 1926,

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of ...

released a short cartoon of the song in the

Song Car-Tunes '' Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes'', ''Song Car-Tunes'', or (some sources erroneously say) ''Sound Car-Tunes'', is a series of short three-minute animated films produced by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering t ...

series, made in the DeForest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

sound-on-film process. *The first line of the Chorus lyrics is sung by

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merr ...

in the 1953 ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

'' cartoon " Southern Fried Rabbit". *

version with Gene Lowery Singers released in 1960. *In a 1973 episode of the TV sitcom '' Maude'' the character of Walter Findlay repeatedly plays the song on an electric organ. *In a 2000 episode of the TV sitcom ''

Strangers with Candy ''Strangers with Candy'' is an American comedy television series produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on April 7, 1999, and concluded its third and final season on October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ( ET). A pr ...

'' a student sings and plays acoustic guitar. Season 2, Episode 6, "Hit and Run". *In the 1991

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

winner ''

Barton Fink ''Barton Fink'' is a 1991 American period black comedy psychological thriller film written, produced, edited and directed by the Coen brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hir ...

'', the character of W. P. Mayhew drunkenly performs Fosters song. *In the 2021 TV series ''

Them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Wels ...

'', this song is sung in the pilot episode by multiple characters, and again in the fifth episode.

References

External links

Sheet music

"Old Black Joe" search
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

' National Jukebox
"Old Black Joe" search
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

"Old Black Joe"
sung by Collins & Harlan at the Alexandria Digital Research Library {{Authority control 1860 songs American songs Parlor songs Songs about old age Songs written by Stephen Foster Blackface minstrel songs