Annotation:Dora Dean

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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 African-American 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"). The song was composed in honor of vaudeville entertainer named Dora (Babbage) Dean, an African-American woman who possessed great style, poise and personality. Along with her partner, Charles Johnson, she is credited with helping to popularize the Cakewalk dance. 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”.

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)." Fiddle versions are usually sourced to the playing of regionally influential Eastern Kentucky/W.Va. peripatetic 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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