Song Video
Lyrics
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
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 boys
As thick as hasty pudding.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there were a million.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
Information About Yankee Doodle Dandy
This is a famous song of Anglo-American origin and possibly written by Richard Shuckburgh. Today it is the state anthem of Connecticut and mostly sung as a patriotic song. However, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" dates back to before the American Revolution when British military officers would try to mock the "Yankees".
It was played by the band after the signing of the treaty of Paris after the Revolutionary War.
The first versions were played by British fife and drummers to mock the American Colonials in the 1770s. Irving Berlin took the basic song of Yankee Doodle, and turned it into Yankee Doodle Dandy, the song most of us are more familiar with. There are versions available that are similar to the original. The tune has remained the same through 200 years.
Why did yankee doodle stick a feather in his hat and call it macaroni? Back in Pre-Revolutionary America when the song "Yankee Doodle" was first popular, the singer was not referring to the pasta "macaroni" in the line that reads "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni". "Macaroni" was a fancy ("dandy") style of Italian dress widely imitated in England at the time. So by just sticking a feather in his cap and calling himself a "Macaroni" (a "dandy"), Yankee Doodle was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country bumpkin, because that was how the English regarded most colonials at that time.
Some additional information regarding the history of the song Yankee Doodle Dandy can be found at this website.
Tradition has it that Yankee Doodle had its origins in the French and Indian War when New England troops joined Braddock's forces at Niagara. In contrast to the spit and polish of the British army, the colonials were a motley crew, some wearing buckskins and furs. Dr. Richard Schuckburg, a British Army surgeon reportedly wrote the tune ridiculing the Americans in the early 1750s. Some scholars believe it is a variant of the nursery rhyme Lucy Locket.
Despite the fact it began as ridicule, the colonials took the song for their own. Countless versions and parodies evolved, many of which made fun of their officers, including George Washington. These verses are included at the end of the tune. When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown it is said while the British played The World Turned Upside Down, the Americans played Yankee Doodle.
There are said to be as many as 190 verses of Yankee Doodle.
Alternative Lyrics & Related Songs
This is a funny and gross version
Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a gopher,
Bumped into a trash can and this is what fell over
40 pounds of greasy slimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meats little birdy stinky feet
French fried eyeballs rolling in a pool of mud
Gee I forgot my fork so they gave me
Ham sandwich puss on top eagle eyeballs
Camel's snot
All these things they cost a lot
So they gave me sugar with vomit on top bop.
This is a longer version that has Yankee Doodle doing more things
And then the feathers on his hat
They looked so' tarnal fin-a
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.
Chorus.
And then we saw a swamping gun
Large 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
It makes a noise like father's gun
Only a nation louder.
Chorus.
I went as nigh to one myself
As' Siah's underpinning
And father went as nigh agin
I thought the deuce was in him.
We saw a little barrel, too
The heads were made of leather
They knocked upon it with little clubs
And called the folks together.
Chorus.
And there they'd fife away like fun
And play on cornstalk fiddles
And some had ribbons red as blood
All bound around their middles.
The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.
Chorus.
Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions
For' lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.
Chorus.
But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother
So I took my hat off, made a bow
And scampered home to mother.
Chorus.
Cousin Simon grew so bold
I thought he would have cocked it
It scared me so I streaked it off
And hung by father's pocket.
Chorus.
And there I saw a pumpkin shell
As big as mother's basin
And every time they touched it off
They scampered like the nation.
This one has Washington in it
And there was Captain Washington,
With gentlefolks about him,
They say he's gown so 'tarnal proud
He will not ride without them.
Chorus.
There came Gen'ral Washington
Upon a snow-white charger
He looked as big as all outdoors
And thought that he was larger.
Chorus.
You can add this to the end
He's a Yankee Doodle dandy,
Yankee Doodle through and through.
A real live cousin of old uncle sam born of the red,white, and blue.
He's a Yankee Doodle sweet-heart Yankee Doodle he's our boy.
Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony,
He is our Yankee Doodle boy.
This is a version that you may not be familiar with
Yankee Doodle went to town,
Riding on a pony.
He stuck a feather in his cap.
And called it macaroni.
Yankee Doodle, Fa, So, La.
Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Yankee Doodle, Fa, So, La.
Buttermilk and Brandy.
Yankee Doodle went to town,
To buy a pair of trousers.
He swore he could not see the town,
For so many houses.
Yankee Doodle, Fa, So, La.
Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Yankee Doodle, Fa, So, La.
Buttermilk and Brandy.