Skip to My Lou

"Skip to My Lou" is a popular children's song.

Skip to My (The) Lou was a popular partner-stealing dance from America's frontier period.

According to Old Town School of Music's Songnotes:

In early America, 'respectable folks' in strict Protestant communities regarded the fiddle as the one of the devil’s tools (if it led to dancing) because dancing was regarded as downright sinful. Faced with such a religious prejudice for socializing, young people developed the “play-party,” in which all the objectionable features of dancing were removed or masked so that grave elders would overlook their activity. As people moved West and communities shrug off the 'witch-hunt' mentality which plagued early Protestant New England square dancing and barn dancing became acceptable, at least to some.
Back when musical instruments were frowned upon however - the dancers sang and the audience clapped to create rhythm for their own music. In time, the play-party acquired a life of its own. It became an ideal amusement for teenagers and young married couples. In many a frontier community, the bear hunters, Indian fighters, the rough keelboat men and the wild cowboys could be seen dancing innocently with their gals, like so many children at a Sunday school picnic.
“Skip to My Lou” is a simple game of stealing partners (or swapping partners as in square dancing). It begins with any number of couples hand in hand, skipping around in a ring. A lone boy in the center of the moving circle of couple sings, “Lost my partner what’ll I do?” as the girls whirl past him. The young man in the center hesitates while he decides which girl to choose, singing, “I'll get another one prettier than you.” When he grasps the hand of his chosen one, her partner then takes his place in the center of the ring and the game continues. It's an ice-breaker, a good dance to get a group acquainted to one another and to get everyone in the mood for swinging around.
It's interesting to note that “loo” is the Scottish word for “love.” The spelling change from “loo” to “lou” probably happened as Anglo-Americans, and the song, became Americanized.

Lyrics (Common version)

Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darlin'.

(Changing verse here). (repeated 3 times)

Skip to my Lou, my darlin'.

The changing verse

• Fly's in the buttermilk, Shoo, fly, shoo
• There's a little red wagon, Paint it blue
• Lost my partner, What'll I do?
• I'll get another one, Prettier than you
• Can't get a red bird, Jay bird'll do
• Cat's in the cream jar, Ooh, ooh, ooh
• Off to Texas, Two by two

Skip, skip, skip to the Lou,

Skip, skip, skip to the Lou,

Skip, skip, skip to the Lou,

Skip to the Lou, my darlin'.

Other Version-

Flies in the buttermilk, Shoo fly shoo! (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Lou, Lou skip to my Lou! (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

(sound sad) Lost my partner, What will I do? (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

(sound sad) Lou, Lou skip to my Lou, (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

(magically change to happy) :I'll get another one just like you! (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling!

Lou, Lou skip to my Lou! (3x)

Skip to my Lou, my darling.

In popular culture

• The song was frequently performed and recorded by Lead Belly, whose version was covered by Pete Seeger.
• It was recorded by Judy Garland (1944) and Nat King Cole.
• In 1963, the song was covered by The Fabulous Echoes on their LP album Those Fabulous Echoes with the Hong Kong-based Diamond Records.
• An unconventional arrangement of this tune is featured in the 1944 motion picture, Meet Me in St. Louis.
• Ken Curtis's character in The Searchers (film), Charlie McCorry, plays the song as he attempts to court Laurie Jorgensen, played by Vera Miles.
• "Skip to my Lou" is the nickname of NBA star Rafer Alston.
• The song also appeared in The Shining, a Stephen King novel.
• The song was also sung in an episode of both the TV series Dexter, and Daniel Boone
• In Kidsongs' "A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm", the song was sung when the jump-ropers are dancing. This song was also heard as an instrumental underscore at the beginning of "Play Along Songs" released in 1993.
• Another movie in which the song appears is "Motherhood" (2009)
• The song is sung in Pee-Wee's big adventure

References

• Old Town School of Folk Music Resource Page