Shortnin' Bread
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"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread" or "Short'nin' Bread") (Roud 4209) is often thought of as a traditional Negro plantation song. However the first version was written by James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. His song was named "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", the chorus of which is:
- Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed—
- Rake de coals out hot an' red—
- Putt on de oven an' putt on de led,—
- Mammy's gwineter cook som short'nin' bread.[1]
Titled "Shortened Bread", E.C. Perrow published the first folk version of this song in 1915, which he collected from East Tennessee in 1912.[2] The folk version of the song—as with Riley's— does not have any distinct theme, but consists of various floating lyrics, some relating to shortnin' bread, some not. The traditional chorus associated with the folk song goes:
- Mammy's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin',
- Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread
Shortening bread is a fried batter bread, the ingredients of which include corn meal, flour, hot water, eggs, baking powder, milk and shortening.
Gid Tanner and the singer Lawrence Tibbett recorded popular versions of the song. Another version was featured in the 1937 film Maytime.
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[edit] More recent versions
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On 14 October 1960, Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds' version became the first #1 record on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey.
The Banana Splits borrowed the tune for its February 1969 "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" hit.
The song was recorded by the American pop band The Beach Boys. It was released on their 1979 album L.A. (Light Album).
A later version was recorded by the country rock band The Tractors, on their 1998 album Farmers in a Changing World. Their version reached #57 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
The Cramps have also made a cover of this song, featured on the Stay Sick album.
[edit] Cultural references
- Nelson Eddy, as Willie the Operatic Whale, sings in the 1946 Disney animated feature Make Mine Music.
- Donald Duck sings the song while making pancakes in the 1948 animated short Three for Breakfast.
- In the Ren & Stimpy episode, "I Love Chicken", Ren Hoek sings the song whilst preparing a meal.
- In the film Police Academy 4, the character Captain Harris is seen singing the song into his cane.
- In the Season 4 I Love Lucy episode "Ethel's Home Town", Ethel Mertz performs the song onstage.
- At the end of a The Fresh Prince of Bel Air episode, Will is seen singing the song while scrubbing the floor with his cousin as the end credits roll.
- At the end of a trailer titled "Bad World" for the game Battlefield: Bad Company two characters sing the song.
- In the Elvis Presley song "Clambake", "Shortnin' Bread" is paraphrased as "Mama's little baby loves clambake clambake, mama's little baby loves clambake too".
- In a Drawn together episode, "Terms of Endearment," Foxxy Love sings the song while cooking, after a tumor has put pressure on "the part of her brain that controls negative stereotypical behavior."
- The chorus to the song is used as a medley in the song "Pachuco Cadaver" on Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
- At the end of the credits in the movie Secret Window, Johnny Depp is heard singing the song.
- In the 1985 Kidsongs video A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm, Shortenin Bread is sang in a different way pertaining to eating breakfast.
- In the movie Trainspotting, Renton's friends and family sing the song in a celebration after he avoids being jailed.
- In 1984, the children's music trio Sharon, Lois & Bram performed this song in Season 1 of their hit TV Show Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show.
- A version of this song referring to rhubarb pie is used as the jingle of a fake bakery in A Prairie Home Companion.
- The 1994 song Deuces Are Wild by Aerosmith features the line "Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread" in the lyrics.
- There was a scene in Here's Lucy where Uncle Harry Gale Gordon puts a tape recorder in front of Lucy's desk and she types his dications when ever he's not at work. But after Lucy Lucille Ball leaves Uncle Harry goes over to her desk and sings the two verse of Shortnin'Bread.
- In the Warner Bros. cartoon, Hare Tonic, Elmer and Bugs take turns singing the song, replacing "shortnin' bread" with "wabbit stew".
- Allan Sherman sang a Jewish-oriented satire, substituting "matzo balls" and "Pesach bread" for "shortnin' bread".
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
- Eitel, Edmund Henry (ed.) The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Vol 5. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrell Company (1913).
- Perrow, E.C. "Songs and Rhymes from the South." The Journal of American Folklore, 28:108 (Apr. - Jun., 1915) 129-190.
- Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "Shortenin' Bread". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007.
[edit] External links
- [1] - complete text of James Whitcomb Riley's "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out".
