"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" is a song composed by James F. Hanley with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald that was published in January 1917.

An Indiana signature

The tune was published as a

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...

pop song by the New York publishing firm Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. It contains a musical quotation from an earlier Tin Pan Alley popular song, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," and used several evocative words and phrases from the earlier song's lyrics including "candlelight," "moonlight," "fields," "new-mown hay," "sycamores," and "Wabash". Since 1946, the chorus of "Back Home Again in Indiana" has been performed during pre-race ceremonies before the Indianapolis 500. From 1947 until 2020, thousands of multicolored balloons would be released from an infield tent during the song, until the practice was halted citing environmental concerns. From 1972 to 2014, the song was performed most often by Jim Nabors. He admitted to having the song's lyrics written on his hand during his inaugural performance, and occasionally his versions altered several of the words. The vocals are supported by the Purdue All-American Marching Band. In 2014, Nabors performed the song for the final time after announcing his retirement earlier that year, saying: "You know, there's a time in life when you have to move on. I'll be 84 this year. I just figured it was time ... This is really the highlight of my year to come here. It's very sad for me, but nevertheless there's something inside of me that tells me when it's time to go." After Nabors retired, the honor of singing the song was done on a rotating basis (which had also been the case prior to Nabors becoming the regular singer) in 2015 and 2016. A cappella group Straight No Chaser performed in 2015 and the Spring 2014 winner of '' The Voice'' Josh Kaufman accompanied by the Indianapolis Children's Choir performed in 2016. The Speedway has returned to a standard singer starting in 2017, with Jim Cornelison doing it for nine runnings as of the 2025 race. The song was also parodied in 1988 as "I Spent the War in Indiana". It made fun of that year's Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Indiana native

Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...

's military service in the Indiana National Guard during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, allowing him to avoid deployment to Vietnam.

A jazz standard

In 1917 it was one of the current pop tunes selected by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

to be recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, (ODJB), who released it as a 78 with " Darktown Strutters' Ball". This lively instrumental version by the ODJB was one of the earliest jazz records issued and sold well. The tune became a

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

. For years,

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

and his All Stars would open every public performance with the number. Its chord changes undergird the

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

composition " Donna Lee", one of jazz's best known contrafacts, a composition that lays a new melody over an existing harmonic structure. Lesser known contrafacts of "Indiana" include Fats Navarro's "Ice Freezes Red" and Lennie Tristano's "Ju-Ju". In 1934, Joe Young, Jean Schwartz, and Joe Ager wrote " In a Little Red Barn (On a Farm Down in Indiana)", which not only incorporated all the same key words and phrases above, but whose chorus had the same harmonic structure as "Indiana". In this respect it was a contrafact of the latter.

Cover versions

* Original Dixieland Jazz Band, 1917 * Eddie Condon with Frank Teschemacher and Gene Krupa, 1928 * Red Nichols, 1929 * Casa Loma Orchestra, 1932 * Hoosier Hot Shots, 1937 * Chu Berry with Hot Lips Page, 1937 *

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most i ...

with

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...

, 1942 * Lester Young with

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

, 1944 *

Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also l ...

with Slam Stewart, 1945 * Bud Powell, 1947 *

, ''An Evening with Louis Armstrong at Pasadena Civic Auditorium'', 1951 *

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

, and Sonny Criss, '' Inglewood Jam'', 1952 * Dave Brubeck, ''Interchanges ‘54'' *

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music. Darin started ...

and

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...

, '' Two of a Kind'', 1961 * Richard "Groove" Holmes, ''On Basie's Bandstand'', 1966 * Joe Venuti and Zoot Sims, ''Joe and Zoot'', 1973 *

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American country musician and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' on CBS television from ...

, live on The Tonight Show, 1973 * Bonnie Koloc, ''Wild and Recluse'', 1978 * Dick Wellstood with Kenny Davern, ''The Blue Three at Hanratty's'', 1981 * Straight No Chaser, ''The New Old Fashioned'', 2015 * Jerry Garcia, “Garcia”, 1974 * Rosemary Clooney, ''Interview Jazz Collection Vol. 1'', 1996

References

External links

* Song lyrics on

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

{{authority control Songs with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald 1917 songs 1910s jazz standards Louis Armstrong songs Songs written by James F. Hanley Indianapolis 500 Songs about Indiana

An Indiana signature

A jazz standard

Cover versions

See also

References

External links