Shortnin' Bread

"Shortnin' Bread"
Song
Written	c. 1890s
Published	1900
Songwriter(s)	James Whitcomb Riley

"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread", "Short'nin' Bread", or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is an American folk song dating back at least to 1900, when James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem. While there is speculation that Riley may have based his poem on an earlier African-American plantation song,^[1] no definitive evidence of such an origin has yet been uncovered. A "collected" version of the song was published by E. C. Perrow in 1915. It is song number 4209 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Shortening bread refers to a bread made of corn meal and/or flour and lard shortening.

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Transcription

Origins

The origin of "Shortnin' Bread" is obscure. Despite speculation of African-American roots, it is possible that it may have originated with Riley as a parody of a plantation song, in the minstrel or coon song traditions popular at the time.^[2]^[3]

Riley titled the song "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", and wrote the first verse as:

Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed
Rake de coals out hot an' red
Putt on de oven an' putt on de led
Mammy's gwiner cook som short'nin' bread^[4]

The dialect rendered into common English would be:

Fetch that dough, from the kitchen shed
Rake those coals out, hot and red
Put on the oven and put on the lid
Mommy's going to cook some short'nin' bread

The verse includes:

When corn plantin' done come roun'
Blackbird own de whole plowed groun'
Corn is de grain as I've hearn said
Dat's de blackbird's short'nin' bread

Another pair of verses may be later, and exist in several versions:

Three little children, lying in bed
Two was sick and the other 'most dead
Send for the doctor and the doctor said
"feed them children on short'nin' bread"

When those children, sick in bed,
heard that talk 'bout short'nin' bread.
They popped up well, to dance and sing,
skipping around and cut the pigeon wing.

In some versions there are two children instead of three - and the "other" either "bump'd his head" or "was dead". The first doesn't quite scan.^{[clarification needed]} The children (or "chillun") were once referred to by one of several racist terms.

Other verses include:

Pull out the skillet, pull out the led,
Mama's gonna make a little short'nin' bread
That ain't all she's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make a little coffee too

I slipped to the kitchen, slipped on the led,
slipped my pockets full of short'nin' bread.
I stole the skillet, I stole the led,
I stole the girl who makes short'nin' bread

They caught me with the skillet, They caught me with the led,
They caught me with the girl who makes short'nin' bread.
I paid six dollars for the skillet, six dollars for the led,
Spent six months in jail eating short'nin' bread.

Reese DuPree composed a version recorded in 1927.^[5]

Folk version

Titled "Shortened Bread", E. C. Perrow published the first folk version of this song in 1915, which he collected from East Tennessee in 1912.^[6] The folk version of the song—as with Riley's—does not have any distinct theme, but consists of various floating lyrics, some relating to "shortnin' bread", some not. The traditional chorus associated with the folk song goes:

Mammy's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin'
Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread (rpt.)

Other renditions

Al Jolson^{[citation needed]}
1926 - Gid Tanner^[7]
1933 – Paul Robeson^[8]
1938 - The Andrews Sisters^[9]
1961(?) - The Viscounts^[10]
1952 - Sonny Terry, Sonny Terry's New Sound: The Jawharp in Blues and Folk Music (1968)^[11]
Lawrence Tibbett^{[citation needed]}
Fats Waller^[12]
1959 - Dave Brubeck^[13]
1961 - Frances Faye^[14]
Richard White^{[citation needed]}
Clayton McMichen^{[citation needed]}
1937 – Nelson Eddy, Maytime^[15]
1956 - Etta James, Etta "Miss Peaches" James: Shortnin' Bread Rock / Tears of Joy^[16]
1963 – Mississippi John Hurt, D.C. Blues: Library of Congress Recordings^[17]
1966 – Lee Dorsey^[18]
1977 - Charles Mingus (parody)^[19]
1979 - the Beach Boys L.A. (Light Album)^[20]
1982 – Klaus Flouride^[21]
1981 – The Kelly Family, Wonderful World!^[22]
1990 – The Cramps, Stay Sick^[23]
1997 - Taj Mahal (musician)^[24]
1998 – The Tractors, Farmers in a Changing World (reached No. 57 on the Hot Country Songs chart), Heaven's Sake Kids^[25]
2002 – Laurie Berkner, Under a Shady Tree^[26]
2014 and 2017 – The Wiggles^[27]
2023 – Israel's Arcade ^[28]

In popular culture

Music

Beach Boys composer Brian Wilson has a long-attested love of the song. Alice Cooper described meeting Wilson alongside Iggy Pop for the purpose of writing music, and being unsettled by his obsessive playing of the song.^[29]
The Unity Church sings "Every little cell in my body is healthy. Every little cell in my body is well." to the tune of "Shortnin' Bread". It appears in all three editions of the hymnal and was reportedly used by Myrtle Fillmore during her healing.
The tune for a significant portion of "The Happy Organ" (1959) bears a strong resemblance to the "Shortnin' Bread" tune (the portion under "put on the skillet, slip on the lid, mammy's gonna make us some shortnin' bread").^[30]^[31]
"Bread and Butter" by The Newbeats (1964) is also based on the "put on the skillet" melody. "I Can't Believe What You Say (for Seeing What You Do)" by Ike Turner (1964) shares this progression.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson incorporated the melody line within Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" at the opening of Emerson, Lake and Palmer concerts.
The melody from the "put on the skillet" portion also forms the harmonic choruses of "Little Bitty Pretty One" by Thurston Harris and the Sharps (1957), "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" by The Banana Splits (1968), and "Buffalo Soldier" by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1983).
In the Elvis Presley song "Clambake", "Shortnin' Bread" is paraphrased as "Mama's little baby loves clambake clambake, mama's little baby loves clambake too."
Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds took a rock version of the song to No. 82 in the Hot 100 in August 1962.^[32]
The chorus to the song is used as a melody in the song "Pachuco Cadaver" on Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.
The 1994 song "Deuces Are Wild" by Aerosmith features the line "Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread" in the lyrics.
Hap Palmer wrote a song "Sittin' in a High Chair" for his 1984 album BabySong while using the music to adapt it. A video for the song shows a mama orangutan feeding her baby.^[33]
Johnny Cash mentioned the line "Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread" in the Mark O'Connor song "The Devil Comes Back to Georgia", a continuation of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and a collaboration with Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, and Charlie Daniels.

Film

Willie the Whale (voiced by Nelson Eddy) sings the first verse and the chorus of the song in the animated short "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" featured in the Disney film Make Mine Music (1946).
Donald Duck sings the song while making pancakes in the animated short Three for Breakfast (1948) and you can hear him sing a short version of this in Lion Around (1950).
In the Looney Tunes cartoon Swooner Crooner (1944), the first of many crooning roosters who audition for Porky Pig is a caricature of Vaughn Monroe who sings the refrain.
In the Merrie Melodies cartoon Hare Tonic (1945), Elmer Fudd sings the song at the beginning of the cartoon but with the lyrics changed from "shortnin' bread" into "wabbit stew".
Rosa Rio played the song in her original Video Yesteryear score for The Wizard of Oz (1925) in the mid-1980s as a theme for the character of Snowball (Spencer Bell, credited as G. Howe Black). Some reviewers found this reinforced the racist portrayal of the character.
In the film Police Academy 4 (1987), the character Captain Harris is seen singing the song into his cane.
Similarities have been noted in the main theme for Driving Miss Daisy (1989).^[34]
In the movie Trainspotting (1996), Renton's friends and family sing the song in a celebration after he avoids being jailed.
At the end of the credits in the movie Secret Window (2004), Johnny Depp is heard singing the song.
Chris Rock sings this at a funeral in the comedy Death at a Funeral (2010).
Rod Steiger sings a modified version, "Mama's little Joy Boy loves lobster, lobster" in the black comedy The Loved One (1965), when describing a nightmare he had involving his mother and lobsters.

Television

In the I Love Lucy episode "Ethel's Home Town" (1955), Ethel sings "Shortnin' Bread" while Lucy, Ricky, and Fred perform a comedy routine behind her.^[35]
The Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964): Numerous characters sing this song in different contexts. In one Dudley Do-Right segment, "The Masked Ginny Lynne", Dudley begins leaping around and dancing while singing this song, as the opera singer renders everyone else inert with her soporific moan. One Fractured Fairy Tales retelling of "The Three Little Pigs" begins with three pig sisters receiving a singing telegram, to the tune of this song, telling them they have inherited a fortune.
The Banana Splits (1969): The "Tra La La" theme song uses a chorus derived from "Shortnin' Bread".
In 1984, the children's music trio Sharon, Lois & Bram performed this song in Season 1 of their hit TV show Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show.
In the 1985 Kidsongs video, "A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm", "Shortnin' Bread" is sung in a different way pertaining to eating breakfast.
In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Harley and Ivy", Harley Quinn hums the refrain in one scene while setting a table.
In the Ren & Stimpy episode, "I Love Chicken", Ren Höek sings the song whilst preparing a meal.
At the end of a The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode, Will is seen singing the song while scrubbing the floor with his cousin as the end credits roll.
In the Tom and Jerry cartoon, "The Milky Waif" (1946), the tune of "Shortnin' Bread" is played when Jerry and Nibbles daub themselves with shoe polish and appear in blackface to confuse Tom.
In the Warner Bros. animated television series Animaniacs, this song is part of the regular soundtrack for the adventures of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, and is played over and over again throughout the series.
In the episode "Terms of Endearment" on the adult comedy show Drawn Together, the character Foxxy Love sings a few verses of the refrain.