Compared to the well-assembled and well-manicured English army, the colonists were a mess. Richard Shuckburg (who is known to have existed) saw the colonist recruits amble up to join the regular soldiers.

Legend has it, whether true or not is anybody’s guess as no known hard, direct documented evidence has survived supporting this oft-told story, that a British army surgeon named Dr. Therefore, when the French and Brits went to war over territories in the New World in 1753, the colonists were recruited to join in on the English side. Prior to fighting for their independence against the British, the colonists were, of course, subjects of the English. The first known documented instance of the tune and the words “Yankee” and “doodle dandy” being put together in the same song, it seems, was around the 1750s during the French and Indian War. ( Jaywalker is another term that originally has derogatory connotations- deriving from the insult “jay,” meaning more or less “dumb hillbilly.”) Stemming from the Dutch “Janke” meaning “Little John,” “Yankee” was definitely intended as a belittling remark and became the European way to describe all American colonists, more or less being the equivalent of calling someone a “country bumpkin”, “redneck,” or “dumb hick” today. The purported lyrics are sometimes said to have begun “Yankee doodle come to town, upon on a Kentish pony.” However, this seems unlikely considering the word “Yankee” didn’t come along until years after Cromwell, with the first known documented instance appearing in 1683- used by Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (today’s New York) to disparage their English colonist neighbors in Connecticut.

One popular theory is that similar lyrics were first used to make fun of Oliver Cromwell, the 17th century English political and military leader, for fancying himself a fashionable person. Much like the origin of the melody, where the well-known lyrics came from is also not definitively known. (Incidentally, the tune for the Star Spangled Banner was also originally used in a popular drinking song.) Another theory is the Hessians were the ones who originally brought the tune to the colonies from Germany, where it was being used in a drinking song. (For instance, “Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it, nothing in it, nothing in it, but the binding round it”- a rhyme that may or may not have been written before the tune started being used for Yankee Doodle). Over the next two centuries, that particularly melody bounced around Europe and was re-appropriated for various other little jingles – like describing the struggles of English Puritans or used in nursery rhymes. The melody may have been heard as early as the 1500s in Holland, with rather nonsensical lyrics about the harvest and farmers receiving their wage in buttermilk. Here now is the story behind the song “Yankee Doodle” and the answer to that elusive question – Why did Yankee Doodle stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni?Īs with a lot of older songs, the tune and music that we today associate with “Yankee Doodle” was actually written much earlier than the 18th century. By the end of the American Revolution, however, the song had been repurposed by the burgeoning new country. The tune was originally used by British soldiers to mock Americans for being disorganized, disheveled and, as far as the Brits were concerned, inferior. Today, the jingle may bring to mind a proud revolutionary spirit, but the song’s origins are really anything but. While silly and irreverent, the song “Yankee Doodle” holds a rather patriotic place in many American hearts and is even the official state song of Connecticut. Why did Yankee Doodle call the feather in his hat macaroni? asks: Curious question for you, but something I’ve always wondered about.

Hands off my macaroni lyrics