"The Yellow Rose of Texas" is a traditional American folk song dating back to at least the 1850s. Members of the

Western Writers of America Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include histori ...

chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Several versions of the song have been recorded, including by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

and

Mitch Miller Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...

Origin

The earliest known version is found in ''Christy's Plantation Melodies. No. 2'', a songbook published under the authority of

Edwin Pearce Christy Edwin Pearce Christy (November 28, 1815 – May 21, 1862) was an American composer, singer, actor and stage producer. He is more commonly known as E. P. Christy, and was the founder of the blackface minstrel group Christy's Minstrels. Biography H ...

in Philadelphia in 1853. Christy was the founder of the blackface

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...

known as the

Christy's Minstrels Christy's Minstrels, sometimes referred to as the Christy Minstrels, were a blackface group formed by Edwin Pearce Christy, a well-known ballad singer, in 1843, in Buffalo, New York. They were instrumental in the solidification of the minstrel s ...

. Like most minstrel songs, the lyrics are written in a cross between a parody of a generic creole dialect historically attributed to

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

and standard

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

. The song is written in the first person from the perspective of an African-American singer who refers to himself as a " darkey," longing to return to "a yellow girl" (that is, a light-skinned, or bi-racial woman born of African/African-American and European-American progenitors). The soundtrack to the TV miniseries ''

James A. Michener's Texas ''James A. Michener's Texas'' (also called ''Texas'') is a 1994 ABC television miniseries directed by Richard Lang and starring Patrick Duffy as Stephen F. Austin, Stacy Keach as Sam Houston, Chelsea Field as Mattie Quimper, Rick Schroder as Ot ...

'' dates a version of the song to June 2, 1933, and co-credits both the authorship and performance to Gene Autry and Jimmy Long. Don George reworked the original version of the song, which

made into a popular recording in 1955 that knocked Bill Haley & His Comets' " Rock Around The Clock" from the top of the Best Sellers chart in the U.S. Miller's version was featured in the 1956 motion picture ''

Giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

'', and reached #1 on the U.S. pop chart the same week ''Giant'' star James Dean died. Stan Freberg had a simultaneous hit of a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

version in which the bandleader warred with the snare drummer,

Alvin Stoller Alvin Stoller (October 7, 1925 – October 19, 1992) was an American jazz drummer. Though he seems to have been largely forgotten, he was held in high regard in the 1940s and 1950s. He was best known for playing drums on both Mitch Miller's ...

, who also featured prominently in Miller's arrangement. '' Billboard'' ranked Miller's version as the No. 3 song of 1955.

Lyrics

Earliest known version, from Christy's Plantation Melodies. No. 2:

Civil War use of the song

This song became popular among Confederate soldiers in the

Texas Brigade The Texas Brigade (also known as Hood's Brigade) was an infantry formation of the Confederate States Army, Confederate Army that distinguished itself in the American Civil War. Along with the Stonewall Brigade, they were considered the Confederate ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

; upon taking command of the

Army of Tennessee The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in ...

in July 1864, General

John Bell Hood John Bell Hood (June 1 or June 29, 1831 – August 30, 1879) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Although brave, Hood's impetuosity led to high losses among his troops as he moved up in rank. Bruce Catton wrote that "the de ...

introduced it as a marching song.Lanning, Michael Lee. ''Civil War 100: The Stories Behind the Most Influential Battles, People and Events in the War between the States''. Sourcebooks, Incorporated 2006. p. 306. The final verse and chorus were slightly altered by the remains of Hood's force after their crushing defeat at the Battle of Nashville that December: (Last verse) The modified lyrics reference famous Confederate military commanders

Joseph Johnston Joseph Johnston may refer to: *Joseph Johnston (Irish politician) (1890–1972), Irish academic, farmer and politician *Allan Johnston (politician) (Joseph Allan Johnston, 1904–1974), Liberal party member of the Canadian House of Commons * Joseph ...

P.G.T. Beauregard Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (May 28, 1818 - February 20, 1893) was a Confederate general officer of Louisiana Creole descent who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is common ...

, and Robert E. Lee. Texan veterans sang it openly to mock Hood's mishandling of their Nashville campaign.Walker, Gary C. ''The War in Southwest Virginia 1861-65''. A&W Enterprise 1985. p. 130. In this version of the chorus, "soldier" replaced "darkey." The same substitution is made throughout the song. The song was very popular with not only Texan troops but other infantry units in the west such as Louisiana and Arkansas.

Gene Autry and Jimmy Long version

Gene Autry first recorded this song on January 27, 1933, at Victor Studios, without supporting musicians. On March 1, he and Jimmy Long recorded the better-known version for American Record Corporation (ARC). This was released in June 1933 on Melotone, Perfect and several other dime store labels distributed by ARC. His version started with "There's a yellow rose in Texas, I'm going back to see, no other fellow knows her, nobody else but me." On March 10, Autry filed a copyright not for lyrics, but for his arrangement and melody. Whether the copyright was good is unknown, Gene knew all the tricks of the trade, and he learned how to squeeze every dime out of his creative efforts. He made a small fortune from songwriting and publishing over the years (600 songs), and in 1961 he bought a major league baseball team.

Popular hit

In September 1955, for six weeks,

had a ''Billboard''

number one hit A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

with "The Yellow Rose of Texas", and 13 months later, Miller's hit version was used for a key scene in the 1956 Texas-based film ''

''. Miller's lyrics used "rosebud" and no words - except the term "yellow" - to indicate either Rose or the singer was a person of color. The 1955 song became a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. The song achieved the #2 position in the UK and the #1 position in Australia. In 1955 Stan Freberg issued a parody version of the song which sees him battle against an over-enthusiastic snare drummer.

The Yellow Rose

In 1984,

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artists Johnny Lee and Lane Brody recorded a song titled "The Yellow Rose," which retained the original melody of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" but with new lyrics, for the title theme to a TV series also titled ''

The Yellow Rose ''The Yellow Rose'' is an American soap opera television series that was broadcast on NBC from October 2, 1983 until May 12, 1984. It was produced by Paul Freeman. The series was at least partly inspired by the more coltish elements of the soap o ...

.'' It was a number one country hit that year.

Other versions

* Dacosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, Gennet - 6143 (1927) * Dario Moreno * Gene Autry & Jimmy Long - recorded for Melotone Records on March 1, 1933, catalog No. 12700 *

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

(1942) * Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1955 for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the CD ''So Rare: Treasures from the Crosby Archive'' (2010) *

Ronnie Hilton Ronnie Hilton (born Adrian Hill; 26 January 1926 – 21 February 2001) was an English singer and radio presenter. According to his obituary in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, "For a time Hilton was a star – strictly for home consumption – with ...

- this reached the No. 15 spot in the UK charts in 1955. *

Michael Holliday Norman Alexander Milne, known professionally as Michael Holliday (26 November 1924 – 29 October 1963) was a British singer, who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He had a number of chart hits in the UK, including two number one si ...

- a single release in 1955. *

Mantovani Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' sta ...

(1959) *

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...

(1961) * Hoyt Axton (1991) on "Songs of the Civil War" CD (Columbia) *

Kidsongs ''Kidsongs'' is an American children's media franchise that includes Kidsongs Music Video Stories on DVD and video, The Kidsongs TV Show, CDs of favorite children's songs, song books, sheet music, toys and an ecommerce website. It was created by ...

(1997) * Waldemar Matuška

References

External links

*
''The Yellow Rose of Texas''
sheet music at the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki softwar ...

MP3 file
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from amaranthpublishing.com
MIDI file
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at Lone Star Junction: A Texas and Texas History Resource * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Rose Of Texas, The 1858 songs 1933 singles 1955 singles American folk songs Western music (North America) Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in the United States Texas culture Songs about Texas John Bell Hood Ernest Tubb songs Elvis Presley songs Songs of the American Civil War Songwriter unknown Year of song unknown