This week, we learned Connecticut's state song, Yankee Doodle. This song has become one of America's most patriotic songs.Originally, this song was sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they fought in the French and Indian War. In the early 1750s, Dr. Richard Schuckburg, a British Army surgeon reportedly wrote the tune to make fun of the untrained Americans who wore buckskins and furs instead of polished uniforms. The original tune came from an English nursery rhyme called Lucy Locket.
At the time, the word doodle meant fool or a very simple person. The term macaroni was used in later versions and referred to a young man who thought he was quite stylish when he really wasn't. The English added this to their versions to say that an American Yankee believed that a feather in his hat was enough to make him very fashionable.
There are said to be as many as 190 verses of Yankee Doodle. How many do you know?
Listen to the version that we are playing here: Yankee.mp3
