Today in Music (1941): “Clementine” charted for first time

Clementine Bing Crosby with the Music Maids, Hal Hopper, & John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Percy Montrose (lyrics), unknown (music) (see lyrics here) Firs Published: 1884 First Charted: November 29, 1941 Peak: 20 BB (Crosby); 21 BB, 13 CB, 11 GR, 11 HR, 8 UK (Bobby Darin, 1960); 65 BB (Jan & Dean) (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 33.08 video, 6.22 streaming (multiple versions)

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Wikipedia describes “Clementine” as “a traditional American, tragic but sometimes comic, Western folk ballad.” WK The song tells the story of Clementine, the daughter of a miner during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. She falls into the water and drowns because her lover can’t swim. It has been called “a tongue-in cheek parody of a sad ballad.” SH The song was based on “Down by the River Liv’d a Maiden,” which was written by H.S. Thompson CT and printed in 1863. Lyrics for “Clementine” were written by the Iowa-born Percy Montrose and published in 1884 by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston. WK However, a version of the song was published in 1884 that was credited to Barker Bradford. AS The melody’s origin is unknown, although Gerald Brenan claims in his book South from Granada that it came from an old Spanish ballad “Romance del Conde Olinos o Niño,” AS which was popularized during the Gold Rush by Mexican miners. Bing Crosby had the first charted version of the song in 1941. Bobby Darin charted with the song in 1960, as did Jan & Dean that same year. The song is featured in the 1946 John Ford movie My Darling Clementine starring Henry Fonda. The song has become heavily associated with the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Huckleberry Hound’s yodeling version. AS The Western Writers of America chose it as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time. Resources: AS AmericanSongwriter.com CT Contemplator.com SH Singingthesonginmyheart.com WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/27/2025.

Today in Music (1917): “Shenandoah” charted for first time

Shenandoah unknown

Writer(s): unknown (see lyrics here) Origins: 1837 (?) First Charted: October 20, 1917 (Henry Burr & Albert Campbell) Peak: 9 PM (Burr/Campbell), 36 AC (1967, The Brothers Four) (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 37.96 video, 6.52 streaming (multiple versions)

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Library of Congress calls “Shenandoah” (also known as “Oh Shenandoah” or “Across the Wide Missouri”) “one of America’s most recognizable folk tunes,” LC achieving widespread popularity by the end of the 19th century. Like many folk songs, its origins are unclear but it likely dates back to at least the Civil War. The Library of Congress says its first appearance was in 1882 in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in an article by William L. Alden called “Sailor Songs.” LC However, BalladOfAmerica.org places the song back to at least April 1876 when a song called “Shenandore” appeared in The New Dominion Monthly. Captain Robert Chamblet indicated he heard the song around 1850. BA The meaning of the lyrics is also indefinite. It has been said they refere to the river of the same name, but others say it comes from an African-American story about Sally, the daughter LC of the Oneida Iroquois chief John Skenandoa, BA who was courted by a white Missouri river trader for seven years. LC Alan Lomax, a folklorist who gathered field recordings, has suggested that the song was a sea shanty LC that originated with French Canadian fur traders who traded with Native Americans around the Great Lakes starting in the 16th century. BA Sea shanties were characterized by solo leads that alternated with boisterous choruses. LC Sailors used sea shanties “to coordinate the efforts of completing chores such as raising the ship’s anchor or hauling ropes.” LC The traders sang while paddling their canoes along the Mississippi River. BA In their book Best Loved American Folk Songs, Lomax and his father John said, “The melody has the roll and surge and freedom of a tall ship sweeping along before a trade wind. The sonorous succession of long vowels and soft and liquid consonants blend perfectly with the romantic air. The lines are a call from the homeland to the sailor wandering far out across the seas, a call not from a sweetheart, a house, or even a town, but from the land itself, its rivers and its familiar and loved hills.” BA Henry Burr and Albert Campbell were the first to chart with the song, reaching the top ten in the United States in 1917. Others who recorded the song include Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson, Pee Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Jo Stafford, and Tom Waits with Keith Richards. WK Resources: BA Ballad of America LC Library of Congress WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/1/2025.

Today in Music (1911): “Camptown Races” charted

Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night) Billy Murray

Writer(s): Stephen Foster (see lyrics here) First Published: February 1850 First Charted: November 11, 1911 Peak: 9 PM, 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 7.93 video, 3.32 streaming

Awards (Stephen Foster): Click on award for more details. Awards (Billy Murray):

About the Song: Stephen Foster was the pre-eminent songwriter of the 19th century in America. He is often referred to as “the Father of American Music.” BA The Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee was born in 1826 in Pennsylvania and wrote over 200 songs during his short 37 years. BA He was 18 when he published his first song, “Open They Lattice, Love.” MF He had his first hit with “Oh! Susanna” in 1848. SS His next big hit, in 1850, was “Camptown Races.” It was first published in Plantation Melodies SA in February 1850 by F.D. Benteen. WK Foster wrote the song after traveling through Camptown, a small village in the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania. WK The lyrics, about transients who bet on horses, were written in a stereotypical African Ameican dialect with the specific intention that the song would be performed in minstrel shows, which are widely considered to have been racist. WK The song may have used Dan Emmett’s “Old Dan Tucker” (1843), which was performed by the Virginia Minstrels, as a model. BF “Camptown Races” was introduced to the public by Christy’s Minstrels and it became a hit with other minstrel troupes throughout the country. WK It went on to become “one of the most popular folk/Americana tunes of the nineteenth century.” WK The song was first recorded by Billy Murray in 1911 and performed by Al Jolson in Swanee River, a 1939 biopic about Foster. Bing Cosby, Frankie Laine, Julie London, and Kenny Rogers are among the artists to record the song. WK It was also featured in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy, Blazing Saddles, and was a favorite of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. WK The tune was used at one point for a political campaign song. SA Resources: BA BalladOfAmerica.org BF Battlefields.org MF MentalFloss.com (7/29/2008). “10 Candidates for the World’s First Pop Song” by Mark Juddery SA SongOfAmerica.org SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 264-5. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/27/2025.

This Year in Music (1899): “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain” first published

She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain traditional

Writer(s): unknown (see lyrics here) Released: 1899 First Charted: -- Peak: -- (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 42.85 video, 89.64 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” is a traditional folk song which first appeared in print in 1927 in Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag. In the 1890s, railroad workers in the Midwestern United States adapted it from the melody for “When the Chariot Comes,” a Negro spiritual. WK It was published in 1899 in Old Plantation Hymns. AS It has since become a children’s standard and campfire song, which is interesting when one dives into the song’s background. Negro spirituals emerged from field hands in the South who sang as a way to pass the time and beakup the monotony of the work. That same spirit infused the song’s embrace by railroad workers, as they also faced tedious, difficult labor. AmericangSongwriter.com’s Jacob Uitti says the original spiritual was about the Second Coming of Christ and asserts that the “she” in “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” is a reference not to a woman, but the chariot that Christ will be riding. AS Blogger Deb Simons suggests the line “We’ll all go out to meet her when she comes” likely refers to the Rapture. DS However, Simons also says there may be “an underlying meaning about freedom and the Underground Railroad.” DS Uitti notes that slaves would use religious text as a means of sending messages to help others escape from their slave owners. AS In labor circles, the song would also become a rally about the coming of Mother Jones, who was a labor activist who would visit communities to help them unionize. AS The song has been recorded by Bing Crosby, Pete Seeger, Neil Young, and others. The first known recordings were by Henry Whitter (1924) and Vernon Dalhart (1925). WK Resources: AS AmericanSongwriter.com (1/19/2024). “Behind the Meaning of the Classic Country Nursery Rhyme, ‘She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain’” by Jacob Uitti DS DebSimons.com WK Wikipedia First posted 11/28/2025.