"Git Along, Little Dogies" is a traditional
cowboy ballad, also performed under the title "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo." It is cataloged as
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...
No. 827. 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
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in th ...
chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
The "dogies" referred to in the song are runty or orphaned calves.
History
It is believed to be a variation of a traditional Irish ballad about an old man rocking a cradle.
The cowboy adaptation is first mentioned in the 1893 journal of
Owen Wister
Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer. His novel ''The Virginian (novel), The Virginian'', published in 1902, helped create the cowboy as a folk hero in the United States and built Wister's reputation as the " ...
, author of ''
The Virginian''.
Through Wister's influence, the melody and lyrics were first published in 1910 in
John Lomax
John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess ...
's ''Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.''
Historian
Richard White borrowed a line from the song as the title of his 1991 book ''
It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West''.
Notable performances
The earliest commercial recording of the song was by
Harry "Mac" McClintock in 1929 (released on
Victor V-40016 as "Get Along, Little Doggies").
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer.
Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...
performed the song in the 1940 film ''West of the Badlands''.
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...
covered the song for his 1959 album
''How the West Was Won''.
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
covered the song for their 1962 album
''New Frontier''.
The
Sons of the Pioneers
The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States' earliest Western singing groups. Known for their vocal performances, their musicianship, and their songwriting, they produced innovative recordings that have inspired many Western music per ...
covered the song for their 1990 album ''Sunset on the Range''.
References
External links
The Library of Congress The American Folklife Center
*White, John I., ''Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West'' (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975), referenced i
"AFC News," Summer 2006 The
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
: The American Folklife Center
"Guides to Special Collections" in the Music Division of the Library of Congress" Library of Congress
{{Authority control
American folk songs
Western music (North America) songs
American Songbag songs
Year of song unknown
Songs about cattle