"Oh! Susanna" is a song written by Stephen Foster in 1847. Popularly associated with the California Gold Rush, it is probably based on a Scottish marching song, as the melody can be carried on the chanter of most bagpipes. The lyrics include good examples of nonsense verse: Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as the father of American music, was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began in January 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutters Mill. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ...

Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,

I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see

It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry

The sun so hot I froze to death; Susanna, don't you cry.

Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me

For I come from Alabama,

With my banjo on my knee.

I had a dream the other night when everything was still,

I thought I saw Susanna coming up the hill,

The buckwheat cake was in her mouth, the tear was in her eye,

I said I'm coming from Dixieland, Susanna don't you cry.

I soon will be in New Orleans

And then I'll look around

And when I find my gal Susanne,

I'll fall upon the ground.

The song was originally written in a thick mock African-American dialect ("I'se gwine to Lou'siana my true lub for to see"), reflecting the minstrel show tradition that Foster worked in. Foster's version included another verse that is rarely sung today because of its "violently racist" content: Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ...

I jump'd aboard the telegraph and trabbled down de ribber,

De lectrick fluid magnified, and kill'd five hundred Nigga.

De bulgine bust and de hoss ran off, I really thought I'd die;

I shut my eyes to hold my bref -- Susanna don't you cry.[1]

Instrumentation

Traditionally the song is sung by a tenor voice and accompanied by a guitar and a melody instrument, most often a harmonica. Other instruments used include piano, saxophone and other jazz and dixieland instruments. In music, a tenor is a male singer with a high vocal range. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Parts of the guitar. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A grand piano, with the lid up. ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Dixieland music is a style of jazz. ...

Cutural Reference

• The tune of "Oh! Susanna" was used in the JibJab flash parody "Big Box Mart" which spoofed and criticized the large retailer Wal-Mart.
• Snoopy, while dressed up like Santa Claus, plays "Oh! Susanna" on the accordion to raise money for charity in Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales

The song is frequently parodied when an ersatz folk song is needed. For example: The JibJab logo, with its Victorian era appearance, illustrates the influence of Terry Gilliam on the duos animation JibJab is a website featuring Flash cartoons. ... While, literally, a big box is a box that is big, Big box or big-box, with or without retailer appended at the end, is a term used to refer to retailers that are over a certain store size in square footage (or meterage), often 100,000 square feet, and... Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ... Snoopy is the name of Charlie Browns pet beagle in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. ... A typical depiction of Santa Claus. ... This article is about the instrument as a whole. ... Charlie Browns Christmas Tales is one of many prime-time animated TV specials, based on characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts. ...

• In the film Duck Soup, the Marx Brothers sing a quick verse, "Oh, Freedonia, oh don't you cry for me, 'cause I'm comin' round the mountain with a banjo on my knee."
• In the cartoon The Wacky Wabbit, Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny sing a variation that ends, "Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me, 'cause I'm going to dig up wots of gold, 'V for Victowy'!"
• In the film Paint Your Wagon, part of the shivaree is the quick verse, "Oh, Susanna, he's happy as can be, for he's got him somethin' better than a banjo

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Wacky Wabbit was a cartoon with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd that was originally shown May 2,1942. ... The fictional cartoon character Elmer J. Fudd, now one of the most famous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters, also has one of the more convoluted and disputed origins in the Warner Brothers cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs Bunny himself). ... Bugs Bunny is an Academy Award-winning, street-smart, anthropomorphic, gray rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ... Paint Your Wagon is a 1951 Broadway musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. ...

External links

• "Oh, California", sung to the same tune as "Oh! Susanna"