Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" is a

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

song about

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

cooking, with music by

Guy Wood Guy B. Wood (24 July 1911 – 23 February 2001) was a musician and songwriter born in Manchester, England. Wood started his career in music playing saxophone in dance bands in England. He moved to the United States in the 1930s, where he worked f ...

and words by

Sammy Gallop Sammy Gallop (March 16, 1915 – February 24, 1971) was an American lyricist, known for his big band and swing songs of the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Gallop was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He originally worked as a surveyor and draftsman. On ...

. It was published in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

Recording history

The song became a major hit in 1946 both for

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...

and the

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

orchestra featuring

June Christy June Christy (born Shirley Luster; November 20, 1925June 21, 1990) was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued a sol ...

on vocals. It also went on to be recorded by

Guy Lombardo Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (June 19, 1902 – November 5, 1977) was an Italian-Canadian-American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer. Lombardo formed the Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and othe ...

and his Royal Canadians, and by

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

. Dinah Shore's recording (released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as catalog number 36943), reached the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine Best Seller chart on April 4, 1946 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 7. It was narrowly preceded by Stan Kenton's recording with June Christy (

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

, catalog number 235), which first arrived in the Billboard chart on March 14 and remained for 4 weeks, peaking at number 8. In the Cash Box survey, where all versions were combined at one position, the song reached number 4 for the year.

Background

Small_slice_of_molasses_shoofly_pie_2022

Shoo-fly pie Shoofly pie is a type of American pie made with molasses associated with Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch. According to one writer, "If you had to make a shor ...

is a

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

pie common to both

Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch. According to one writer, "If you had to make a short list of regions in the United States where regional food is actually consumed on a daily basis, the la ...

cooking and southern (U.S.) cooking. Apple Pan Dowdy (or

Apple pandowdy An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

) is a baked apple pastry traditionally associated with Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, with a recipe dating to (according to Crea)Joe Crea, Cleveland-based food criti
"Apple Pan Dowdy is a crowd-pleasing old favorite"
''Cleveland Plain Dealer'' September 15, 2010 (retrieved March 30 2014) colonial times.

In popular culture

The song is frequently mentioned in

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

's 1988 novel ''

Rabbit at Rest ''Rabbit at Rest'' is a 1990 novel by John Updike. It is the fourth and final novel in a tetralogy, succeeding ''Rabbit, Run''; ''Rabbit Redux''; and ''Rabbit Is Rich.'' A related novella, ''Rabbit Remembered'', was published in 2001. ''Rabbi ...

'' as a favorite childhood song of the protagonist, Pennsylvania native Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. The 'Two Fat Ladies' refer to this song in their cookbook ''Obsessions'', as well as singing the song and cooking apple pan dowdy on an episode of their television show.

References

Songs with lyrics by Sammy Gallop 1945 songs Songs written by Guy Wood Guy Lombardo songs {{pop-song-stub