Skip to My Lou

For the American basketball player born 1976 also known as Skip to my Lou or Skip 2 My Lou, see Rafer Alston.
For the 1983 r&b song by Finis Henderson III, see Skip to My Lou (Finis Henderson song).
"Skip to My Lou"
"Skip to My Lou" as performed by the United States Air Force Band's Singing Sergeants
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"Skip to My (The) Lou" (Roud 3433) is a popular American folk song and partner-stealing dance from the 1840s.

Carl Sandburg, poet and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln, writes that "Skip-to-my-Lou" was a popular party game in Lincoln's youth in southern Indiana, with verses such as "Hurry up slow poke, do oh do", "I'll get her back in spite of you", "Gone again, what shall I do", and "I'll get another girl sweeter than you".[1]

John A. and Alan Lomax wrote that "Skip to My Lou" was a simple game of stealing partners (or swapping partners as in square dancing). It begins with any number of couples skipping hand in hand around in a ring. A lone boy in the center of the moving circle of couples sings, "Lost my partner, what'll I do?" as the girls whirl past him. The young man in the center hesitates while he decides which girl to choose, singing, "I'll get another one just like you." When he grasps the hand of his chosen one, the latter's partner moves to the center of the ring. It is an ice-breaker, providing an opportunity for the participants to get acquainted with one another and to get into a good mood.[2] "Skip to My Lou" is no. 3593 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

S. Frederick Starr suggests that the song may be derived from the Creole folksong "Lolotte Pov'piti Lolotte", to which it has a strong resemblance.[3]

The "lou" in the title comes from the word "loo", a Scottish word for "love".[4][5][6]

  1. ^ Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (Vol. I), New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1926, p. 69. Original archived here.
  2. ^ John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, Folk Song USA, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947, p. 80.
  3. ^ Starr, S. Frederick (2000). Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780252068768. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  4. ^ Alan Lomax, The Folk Songs of North America, New York: Doubleday, 1960.
  5. ^ Recordings on File by Carter Family, Lead Belly, Mike & Peggy Seeger, Pete Seeger.
  6. ^ "Songnotes | Old Town School of Folk Music". Oldtownschool.org. Archived from the original on 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2012-08-13.