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Connecticut Symbols, State Song: Yankee Doodle
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"Yankee Doodle"
Written by Francis Hopkinson
Composed by Francis Hopkinson
Adopted on October 01 1978 .
Sheet Music | MIDI
Yankee Doodle went to town,
Riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it macaroni.
chorus
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the folks be handy.
Origin of Song:
Became Official song in 1978.
The origins of the words and music of the Yankee Doodle are not known exactly due to the fact that the song has many versions. There are said to be as many as 190 verses of Yankee Doodle. But, this patriotic U.S. song has an uncomplimentary history.
The music and words go back to 15th century Holland, as a harvesting song that began, "Yanker dudel doodle down." In England, the tune was used for a nursery rhyme -- "Lucy Locket". Later, the song poked fun of Puritan church leader Oliver Cromwell, because "Yankee" was a mispronunciation of the word "English" in the Dutch language, and "doodle" refers to a dumb person. But it was a British surgeon, Richard Schuckburgh, who wrote the words we know today that ridiculed the ragtag colonists fighting in the French and Indian War.
Soon after, the British troops used the song to make fun of the American colonists during the Revolutionary War. Originally, the tune made fun of the poorly dressed and ill-equipped New England soldiers. During the Revolutionary War with England, however, Americans slightly rewrote the words to make fun of the British soldiers. And it became the American colonists' rallying anthem for that war. At the time the Revolutionary War began, Americans were proud to be called yankees and "Yankee Doodle" became the colonists most stirring anthem of defiance and liberty.
During Pre-Revolutionary America when the song "Yankee Doodle" first became popular, the word macaroni in the line that reads "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni" didn't refer to the pasta. Instead, "Macaroni" was a fancy and overdressed ("dandy") style of Italian clothing widely imitated in England at the time. So by just sticking a feather in his cap and calling himself a "Macaroni", Yankee Doodle was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country bumpkin (an awkward and unsophisticated person), because that was how the English regarded most colonials at that time.
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