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“Turkey in the Straw” – The Thanksgiving Turkey’s Theme Song
Turkey in the Straw is the theme song of the American Turkey – the icon of Thanksgiving!
“Turkey In the Straw” is one of the most famous and well known of American folk songs, both inside and outside of the USA. Like many folk songs, its origins are lost in antiquity, but it appears to have originated with the blackfaced minstrels of the 1820s and 1830s. Although originally an early song with racist overtures, it has been “cleaned up” over the years, “Turkey in de straw, turkey in de hay” becoming “Turkey in the hay, in the hay, in the hay,” etc. There are also many different versions, including some that are not suitable for children!
Turkey in the Straw – Some History
“Turkey in the Straw” is thought to be originally a tune from 19th century minstrel shows, “Zip Coon” or “Old Zip Coon”, published around 1834. The authorship of the song has been claimed by George Washington Dixon who popularized the song, as well as Bob Farrell and George Nicholls.
“Zip Coon” in turn has been linked to a number of 19th folk songs believed to have older antecedents in Irish/Scottish/English folk songs. Songs proposed it has links to include “Natchez Under the Hill”, “The Old Bog Hole”, “The Rose Tree”, “Sugar in the Gourd”, “The Black Eagle”, “Glasgow Hornpipe”, “Haymaker’s Dance”, “The Post Office”, “Old Mother Oxford”, “Kinnegad Slasher” and others.
Eloise Hubbard Linscott believes that the first part of the song is a contrafactum of the ballad “My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green”, published in 1857 by Horace Waters, which is in turn said to be a contrafactum of the Irish/Scottish/English ballad “The Old Rose Tree” published by at least 1795 in Great Britain.
The link to “The Old Rose Tree” has been questioned, but a number of musicologists suggest that it may be a composite of “The Rose Tree” and “The (Bonny) Black Eagle”. Similar tune was popular with fiddle players as early as 1820, and the tune of “Turkey in the Straw”/”Zip Coon” may have come from the fiddle tune “Natchez Under the Hill” believed to have been derived from “Rose Tree”
Turkey in the Straw – Performance History
Artistic and popular use of “Turkey in the Straw” through the years has established the song as an item of Americana.
- “Turkey in the Straw” was Billy the Kid’s favorite song.
- “Turkey in the Straw” was the signature song of Billy Golden, an American blackface comic who was a popular recording artist from the 1890s to the 1910s.
- In 1909, the composer Charles Ives incorporated the tune, along with other vernacular American melodies, into his orchestral Symphony No. 2.
- According to survivors, “Turkey in the Straw” was among songs played by the band of the RMS Titanic at one point during the sinking on April 14 and 15, 1912.
- In 1920, American composer Leo Wood wrote the lyrics to Otto Bonnell’s version of “Turkey In The Straw, A Rag-Time Fantasy” which was published by Leo Feist Inc., New York.
- In early June 1922 Texas champion breakdown fiddler Eck Robertson, together with Henry C. Guililand, made America’s first commercial recordings of fiddle music for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York City, featuring “Turkey In The Straw” as one of their four-song selections.
- In 1925, American composer Joseph W. Clokey (stepfather of Gumby creator Art Clokey) wrote the choral ballad “The Musical Trust”, which incorporated “Turkey in the Straw” (with a reference to ”Zip Coon”) and other traditional American tunes.
- In 1926, “Turkey in the Straw” was recorded by the old-time band Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett.
- In 1928, this was used as the base melody in the famous early Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie. The rendering of the tune in the cartoon is noted for being one of the first instances of successful synchronization in animated films. The tune became prominent in Disney’s animated series and was used in many subsequent cartoons in the 1920s and 1930s, including the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color, The Band Concert, in which Donald Duck annoys an orchestra by repeatedly playing the tune over their efforts at The William Tell Overture.
- In 1942, Carson Robison performed an anti-Axis Powers version of “Turkey in the Straw”.
- The full melody is quoted in a fiddle and whistling solo in the “Skip To My Lou” number from the 1944 musical film Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland.
- Erno Dohnanyi used the tune (and also two other traditional American folk tunes) in his composition American Rhapsody (1953).
- The melody is played by many ice cream trucks; in Raymond Chandler’s 1942 novel The High Window, the protagonist recounts “The Good Humor man went by in his little blue and white wagon, playing ‘Turkey in the Straw’ on his music box”.
- The instrumental “Hoedown” from Emerson Lake and Palmer’s album Trilogy quotes the melody.
- The 1990 film Back to the Future Part III featured this song, which was arranged by Alan Silvestri and ZZ Top.
- The 1990s animated television series Animaniacs used the tune for “Wakko’s America”, in which Wakko names all 50-state capitals in the form of a song.
- Adult Swim’s television series Robot Chicken used the song as a part of their Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III special, in which Emperor Palpatine lists the lesser-known Star Wars orders, 1–65.
- The Morning Musume song “Ningen Kankei No Way Way” uses the melody of tune (also known as the “Oklahoma Mixer” in Japan) during the dance break.
- Barney & Friends had a rewritten version of this song which was sung in the direct-to-video films such as “Barney’s Adventure Bus” and “Let’s Go to the Farm, as well as the Season 5 episode “Howdy Friends!” and the Season 8 episode “Squares, Squares, Everywhere!”.
- Kidsongs featured this song as one of its selected songs for the music video story “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. The song was later featured in a few episodes in the PBS television series ‘’The Kidsongs Television Show.
Turkey in the Straw Today
When I hear the Turkey in the Straw today, I don’t think or focus on the racist history of the song – all it is today is a great old tune about the great American bird.