Annotation:Dora Dean

DORA DEAN. American, Country Rag (cut time). F Major ('A' part) & D Minor ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'BB'. This 'raggy' melody was composed by the great Black entertainer and comedian Bert Williams (1874-1922) and published in 1896 ("Oh have you seen Miss Dora Dean, She's the sweetest gal you ever seen"). Mark Wilson remarks that it was a popular piano piece around the turn of the 20th century; widely popular at the time, it was coined “The Greatest Coon Song Ever Written”. The song was composed in honor of vaudeville entertainer named Dora (Babbage) Dean, an African-American woman who possessed great style, poise and personality, and flaunted in front of white crowds in ways that were unheard of by a Black performer. Along with her partner and husband, Charles Johnson, she is credited with helping to popularize the Cakewalk dance. Their song-and-dance act took them abroad for months on end, touring Europe and even Australia. They performed in Hungary and Russia, even for England’s King Edward VII.

Say, have you seen Miss Dora Dean?
She is the finest gal you’ve ever seen;
I’m a-goin’ try and make this gal my queen,
Next Sunday morning I’m goin’ to marry Miss Dora Dean.

It is, however, a version of "I Don't Love Nobody (1)." Modern fiddle versions are usually sourced to the playing of peripatetic and regionally influential Eastern Kentucky/W.Va. fiddler wikipedia:Ed Haley (1883-1951).

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Clare Milliner & Walk Koken (Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes), 2011; p. 164.

Recorded sources : - Rounder 1131/1132, Ed Haley - "Forked Deer" (1997. Originally recorded by Ralph Haley on a home machine in 1947 in Ashland, Ky.)

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