| Cotton-Eyed Joe | |
| Published: | Before 1861 |
| Genre: | Country folk |
"Cotton-Eyed Joe" (also known as "Cotton-Eye Joe") is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada, although today it is most commonly associated with the American South. The song is mostly identified with the 1994 Rednex version, which became popular worldwide. The song is also an instrumental banjo and bluegrass fiddle standard.
"Cotton-Eyed Joe" has inspired both a partner dance and more than one line dance that is often danced at country dance venues in the United States and around the world. The 1980 film Urban Cowboy sparked a renewed interest in the dance. In 1985, the Moody Brothers' version of the song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The Irish group the Chieftains received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration for their version of the song with lead vocals by Ricky Skaggs on their 1992 album Another Country.
The origins of this song are unclear, although it pre-dates the 1861–1865 American Civil War.[1] American folklorist Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) noted in her 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs that several people remembered hearing the song before the war. Scarborough's account of the song came from her sister, Mrs. George Scarborough, who learned the song from "the Negroes on a plantation in Texas, and other parts from a man in Louisiana". The man in Louisiana knew the song from his earliest childhood and heard slaves singing it on plantations.[2] Both the dance and the song had many variants.[3]
The melody of the song may have originated in Ireland. Paddy Moloney of The Chieftans was on tour in Texas when he heard the song and immediately identified it as an old Irish folk melody, "The Mountain Top".[4]
A number of possible meanings of the term "cotton-eyed" have been proposed. The phrase may refer to: being drunk on moonshine, or having been blinded by drinking wood alcohol, turning the eyes milky white; a black person with very light blue eyes; miners covered in dirt with the exception of their white eyes; someone whose eyes were milky white from bacterial infections of trachoma or syphilis, cataracts or glaucoma; or the contrast of dark skin tone around white eyeballs in black people.[5]
American publishing house Harper and Brothers published the first printed version of the song in 1882.[6] It was heard by author Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (born 1850) on the Alabama plantation of her father when she was a child.[7] That 1882 version was republished as follows in 1910:[8]
The lyrics of this version, in nondialectal standard American English are:
By 1884, the fiddle-based song was referred to as "an old, familiar air".[9] In 1925, another version was recorded by folklorist Dorothy Scarborough and published.[10]
Scarborough noted that the song seemed to be well known in the South prior to the Civil War, and parts of it had been sent in by various persons.[10]
Over the years, many different versions of the song have been performed and/or recorded with many different versions of the lyrics (and many without lyrics). "Cotton-Eyed Joe", on occasion referred to as "The South Texas National Anthem", was played for minstrel-type jigs, and it has long been popular as a square dance hoedown and a couple dance polka.[11]
A resident of Central Texas who learned the dance in Williamson County in the early 1880s described it as nothing but a heel and toe "poker" with fringes added. These fringes added to the heel and toe polka were clog steps which required skill and extraversion on the part of the dancer.[12]
During the first half of the 20th century, the song was a widely known folk song all over English-speaking North America. One discography lists 134 recorded versions released since 1950.[13] In more recent decades, the song has waned in popularity in most regions except some parts of the American South, where it is still a popular folk song.
Bob Wills and Adolph Hofner and his San Antonians both recorded the song, and according to music historian Bill C. Malone, Hofner's 1941 version was the one that did the most to popularize the song.[14] A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean inspired a new round dance polka for couples.
The dance remained popular in Texas in the 1970s.[15] A circle dance called "Cotton-Eyed Joe" can be found in the 1975 edition of Encyclopedia of Social Dance. The men stand on the inside of a circle facing out, and the women stand on the outside facing in; both circles follow a sequence of kick steps and struts.[16]
The spoke line version gained popularity, not only in Texas but also across the United States and overseas in the 1980s. A Western "craze" followed the 1980 release of the film Urban Cowboy. In Merle Haggard's "Texas Fiddle Song" (1981), the final verse makes reference to the "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and features the melody of both the Bob Wills and Al Dean versions. "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and its continued popularity in Texas were referred to in the lyrics to Alabama's 1984 song "If You're Gonna Play in Texas".[17]
In August 1994, the Swedish Eurodance group Rednex covered the song as "Cotton Eye Joe" for their album Sex & Violins, combining their style with traditional American instruments, such as banjos[18] and fiddles. In 2002, "Cotton Eye Joe" was remixed in a dance version and was released from Rednex's greatest hits album, The Best of the West. The Rednex cover made an appearance on the sitcom New Girl in 2013 in the season 2 finale, "Elaine's Big Day."[19]
There is a Crazy Frog cover of the song, based on the Rednex version on the Best Of Crazy Hits compilation album.
The Country and Irish singer Lee Matthews released his version of the song with new added lyrics. The single on his own independent label topped the Irish Country Singles Download Chart in January 2015.
Virtual band Gummibär also covered the song in their album La La Love to Dance.
In January 2024, a cover of the song was posted on TikTok, misinterpreting the lyrics as "Gegagedigedagedago", which has recently become a popular internet meme. The cover would then be put in multiple posts on the platform with various objects such as a chicken nugget singing with speech bubbles containing the lyrics, usually with the "Man" face from Roblox on the objects. Newer posts with the cover would show said objects with faces animated.[20]