Buffalo Gals: A Song History

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"Buffalo Gals" started out on the blackface minstrel stage of the 1840s. In 1844 a Boston publisher issued it as sheet music titled "Lubly Fan Will You Cum Out To Night?" and credited it to Cool White.[1] That was the stage name of the minstrel performer John Hodges.[2][3] The title is mock dialect for "Lovely Fanny."[3] The melody may well be older than the sheet music, however. The fiddle scholar Alan Jabbour identified a version of it in a dance tune called "Midnight Serenade." That tune was printed in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels in 1839 and probably circulated by ear before then.[3][4] As one history notes, the first person to publish a song from oral tradition often claimed authorship. So Cool White's credit is not certain proof that he composed it.[3]

Walter Shirlaw drawing of a lively country dance in a firelit room, couples dancing while others watch

Walter Shirlaw (1838–1909), The Country Dance, chalk, gouache and charcoal on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain.

Traveling minstrel troupes changed the city in the title to suit each audience. Versions turned up as "Philadelphia Gals," "New York Gals," "Boston Gals" and others. The Ethiopian Serenaders published "Buffalo Gals" in 1848.[2][3] Buffalo, New York, probably won out because it sat at the end of the minstrel circuit that ran west from New York City.[4] Fiddlers kept the tune alive under other names too, including "Round Town Gals" and "Alabama Gals."[3] Instrumental versions vary much more than the sung ones.[4]

The tune kept finding new uses in the 20th century. With new words, it became the 1944 hit "Dance with a Dolly."[2] Moviegoers know it from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). George Bailey and Mary Hatch sing it on their walk home after the graduation dance, the night George offers to lasso the moon.[2][5] Composer Dimitri Tiomkin also used the tune as a recurring theme in the film's score.[5] The Western Writers of America have named it one of the top 100 Western songs.[2]

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Sources

  1. Johns Hopkins University, Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection: "Lubly Fan Will You Cum Out To Night?".
  2. Wikipedia: "Buffalo Gals".
  3. Ballad of America: "Buffalo Gals: About the Song".
  4. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation: Buffalo Gals (1)".
  5. Movie Music UK: "It's a Wonderful Life" (Dimitri Tiomkin score review).