Oh! Susanna

"Oh! Susanna" is a highly influential American folk song. It was written by Stephen Foster between 1846 and 1848. Foster was a composer from Cincinnati, Ohio. This song became one of the most popular pieces of music in United States history. Its massive success helped change how music was made as a career. Foster became the first fully professional songwriter in the country. He earned a royalty of two cents for every copy of sheet music sold.

The song's musical structure blends several different traditions. It uses a beat taken from the polka. The polka was a dance that had recently arrived in the U.S. from Europe. The melody starts with two phrases based on the major pentatonic scale. This is a type of musical scale with five notes. Some music experts, like Glenn Weiser, believe the song uses parts of older songs. The verse melody resembles "Mary Blane" by Billy Whitlock. The chorus opening is almost identical to "Rose of Alabama" by Silas S. Steele. Both older songs were published in 1846.

The lyrics of the song tell a story of travel. The narrator moves between Deep Southern states. In the original version, the singer carries a banjo on their knee. The story involves a lover searching for a sweetheart. The original lyrics also included many contradictions. One line says it rained all night. The next line says the weather was dry. Another line claims the sun was so hot that the singer froze to death. These lines are often described as nonsense.

It is important to address the song's difficult history. The original lyrics were unbashedly racist. They used racial slurs to depict Black people as dim-witted. Because of this, the lyrics were later redacted or changed. Many people chose to sing new versions to remove the racism. One popular version was used by the Forty-Niners. These were people traveling to California. They replaced the banjo with a "washpan on my knee." A traditional Pennsylvania Dutch version also exists. That version uses Foster's melody but replaces all the lyrics.

The commercial impact of "Oh! Susanna" was unprecedented. Before this song, no American song had sold more than 5,000 copies of sheet music. However, "Oh! Susanna" sold over 100,000 copies. This massive popularity led to many copyright disputes. Between February 1848 and February 1851, the song was copyrighted at least twenty-one times. Many people registered the song under their own names. Foster only earned $100 for the song initially. Despite this, the success established the model for professional songwriting.

Many famous artists have recorded the song over the decades. Harry C. Browne released an early recording in 1916. In the 1950s, The Singing Dogs reached No. 22 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles chart. Bing Crosby included the song in a 1961 medley. In 1963, The Big 3 recorded "The Banjo Song." This song used Tim Rose's new melody but Foster's original lyrics. That specific melody was later used for the 1969 hit "Venus" by Shocking Blue. Neil Young and Crazy Horse also covered this version in 2012.

The song's influence reaches into many different areas of culture. It has been covered by rock groups like The Byrds in 1965. Singer James Taylor included it on his 1970 album. Even modern commercial brands use the melody. The Chinese fast-food chain Mixue Ice Cream & Tea uses it for their theme song. This shows how a single melody can travel through time and across the world. From 19th-century sheet music to modern pop culture, the song remains a significant piece of history.