 | My Old Kentucky HomeEdison Male Quartette |
Writer(s): Stephen Foster (music & lyrics) (see lyrics here) Introduced: 1853 First Recorded: December 1897 First Charted: January 22, 1898 Peak: 13 PM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.1 million (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.11 video, -- streaming |
Awards (Stephen Foster):Click on award for more details. 
Awards (Edison Male Quartette):
Awards (Geraldine Farrar):
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About the Song:Even before “My Old Kentucky Home,” Songwriting Hall of Famer Stephen Foster had “established himself as America’s foremost popular composer with ‘Oh! Susanna’ (1847), ‘Camptown Races’ (1850), and ‘The Old Folks at Home’ (1851).” SS Legend suggests he was inspired to write “My Old Kentucky Home” while visiting his cousins in Bardstown, Kentucky, in January 1852. He was reportedly “inspired by the morning sounds of mockingbirds singing and slave children playing. TY2 However,, biographer Ken Emerson says Foster’s own sketch book confirms the inspiration was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in March 1852. SS The first draft of the song was called “Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night!,” which “aligns Foster's sympathies with the Abolitionist movement.” SA However, he wasn’t about to jeopardize sales of his song with Southerners by condemning slavery. SS Therefore, he dropped references to Uncle Tom and left out the original blackface dialect. SS While still inspired by Stowe’s novel, the revised song “had a broader poetic scope.” SS Ed Christy and his minstrel troop introduced the song in 1853. TY2 The sheet music reportedly sold 100,000 copies, an astonishing figure for the 1850s. TY2 The song charted six times from 1898 to 1918. The first version, which hit #1, was by the Edison Male Quartette who were comprised of tenor John Bieling, baritone S.H. Dudley, bass singer William F. Hooley, and tenor Harry MacDonough. PM They later became the Haydn Quartet – who recorded the song in 1903. It went to #3. Other chart versions of the song came from Harry MacDonough (#3, 1906), Geraldine Farrar (#5, 1910), Alma Gluck (#3, 1916), and the Columbia Stellar Quartet with Lucy Gates (#9, 1918). PM In 1928, this was made the official state song of Kentucky. It is also the official song for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. It has appeared in the musicals Harmony Lane (1935), Swanee River (1939), and I Dream of Jeannie (1952). The last two are screen biopics about Foster. Resources:
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First posted 6/27/2024. |
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