![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/OldBlackJoeFoster1860LOC.jpg/640px-OldBlackJoeFoster1860LOC.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Old Black Joe
Song / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Old Black Joe?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
"Old Black Joe" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1860.[1] Ken Emerson, author of the book Doo-Dah! (1998), indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in the home of Foster's father-in-law, Dr. McDowell of Pittsburgh. The song is not written in dialect.
"Old Black Joe" | |
---|---|
![]() Original sheet music cover | |
Song | |
Published | 1860 |
Songwriter(s) | Stephen Foster |
Emerson believes that the song's "soft melancholy" and its "elusive undertone" (rather than anything musical), brings the song closest to traditional African-American spirituals.[2]
Harold Vincent Milligan describes the song as "one of the best of the Ethiopian [contemporary parlance for blackface minstrel songs] songs ... its mood is one of gentle melancholy, of sorrow without bitterness. There is a wistful tenderness in the music."[3] Jim Kweskin covered the song on his 1971 album Jim Kweskin's America.[4]
The song has sometimes been recorded as "Poor Old Joe", including by Paul Robeson who recorded it several times, for example in 1928 and 1930.[5][6] Other notable recordings were by Bing Crosby (recorded June 16, 1941),[7] Jerry Lee Lewis (1959) and Al Jolson (recorded July 13, 1950).[8]