Cheyenne (1906 song)

"Cheyenne"
Sheet music cover (1906).
Song

"Cheyenne" is a popular and sentimental song written in 1906, with words by Harry Williams and music by Egbert Van Alstyne. It became a hit for a number of artists. The chorus is:

Shy Ann, Shy Ann, hop on my pony,

There's room here

For two dear,

But after the ceremony,

We'll both ride back home dear, as one,

On my pony, from old Cheyenne.

Other uses

The song became a staple of the underscore of western films, to the point of being stereotyped. It also lent itself well to parody.

In the 1943 cartoon "Yankee Doodle Daffy", Daffy Duck puts on a cowboy hat and rides Porky Pig like a horse, as the exasperated pig is trying to get rid and away from the annoying duck, who sings these not-overly-clever lyrics to the same tune:

I'm a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

Yes, sir, I am a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

I'm a cowboy

Yes, sir, I am

Yes, sir, I am a cow-ow-boy

At the time the song was first popular, scandals about conditions in meat-packing plants were in the news. Billy Murray, who had also recorded a "straight" version of the song, recorded a biting parody about a diseased horse that was targeted for such a plant. The chorus:

Cheyenne, Cheyenne, you sick old pony

We'll take you

And bake you

And make you into baloney

And the folks who eat you won't know

You're that pony from old Cheyenne

Bibliography

• Williams, Harry; Van Alstyne, Egbert. "Cheyenne" (sheet music). New York: Jerome H. Remick & Co. (1906).

External links

• Billy Murray's recording of the original song (1906)
• Billy Murray parody version
• Daffy Duck's version (at about 4:00) on YouTube