On “Oh! Susanna”
Regarding “Oh! Susanna,” there is little point in discussing the verses nobody knows. Let us confine ourselves to the verses everybody knows:
Well, I come from Alabama with
a banjo on my knee
I’m gwine to Louisiana ·
my true love for to see
It rained all night, the day I left
the weather, it was dry
the sun so hot, I froze to death
Susanna, don’t you cry
Oh! Susanna! ·
oh, don’t you cry for me
I come from Alabama with
a banjo on my knee
The piece is not, as I assumed all my life, an anonymous folk song. It was written by Stephen Foster in 1847, published in 1848. He also wrote “Camptown Races,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”—and pretty much every other song ever used in a
