"Git Along, Little Dogies" is a traditional cowboy ballad, also performed under the title "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo." It is believed to be a variation of a traditional Irish ballad about an old man rocking a cradle. The cowboy adaptation is first mentioned in the 1893 journal of

Owen Wister Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing '' The Virginian'' and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Biography Early life ...

, author of '' The Virginian''. Through Wister's influence, the melody and lyrics were first published in 1910 in

John Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lo ...

's ''Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.'' It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 827. Members of the

Western Writers of America Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include histori ...

chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The "dogies" referred to in the song are runty or orphaned calves.Cassidy, Frederic Gomes, and Joan Houston Hall. "dogie" ''Dictionary of American Regional English''
June 4, 2009 The earliest commercial recording of the song was by Harry "Mac" McClintock in 1929 (released on Victor V-40016 as "Get Along, Little Doggies"). Historian Richard White borrowed a line from the song as the title of his 1991 book '' It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West''.

References

External links

The Library of Congress
The American Folklife Center *White, John I., ''Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West'' (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975), referenced i
"AFC News," Summer 2006
The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

: The American Folklife Center
"Guides to Special Collections" in the Music Division of the Library of Congress"
Library of Congress American folk songs Western music (North America) American Songbag songs Year of song unknown Songs about cattle {{folk-song-stub