Annotation:Pretty Little Pink

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PRETTY LITTLE PINK. AKA - "My Pretty Little Pink." AKA and see “Blue Eyed Girl/Blue Eyed Gal,” “Blue Eyes Run Me Crazy,” “Fare Thee Well My Pretty Little Miss,” “Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss,” “Susannah Gal (1)/Suzanna Gal (1),” “Western Country.” Old-Time, Breakdown and Song. USA; Kentucky, southwestern Va. A driving banjo tune recorded in the 1920's by eastern Kentucky musicians. It was also recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress (2741-A-1) from the fiddle playing and singing of Franklin County, Virginia, musician H.L. Maxey. By the 1930’s the song was a staple in the repertoires of country radio singers such as Bradley Kincaid, Skyland Scotty, and Grandpa Jones, says Charles Wolfe (1991). See note for “annotation:Western Country.”

The title (as well as an alternate title) comes from a common verse set to the tune:

Fly around my pretty little pink,
Fly around my daisy;
Fly around my pretty little pink,
Your blue eyes run me crazy.

African-American collector Thomas Talley, in his book Negro Folk Rhymes (1922, reprinted in 1991 edited by Charles Wolfe), printed a version of the song that goes:

My pretty liddle Pink,
I once did think,
Dat we-uns sho’ would marry;
But I’se done give up,
Hain’t got no hope,
I hain’t got no time to tarry.
I’ll drink coffee dat flows,
From oaks dat grows,
‘Long de river dat flows wid brandy.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Yazoo CD 2051, Bradley Kincaid (reissue).

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