Annotation:Cat Came Back (And the)
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(AND THE) CAT CAME BACK. American, Reel (2/4 or cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Devil's Box). Christeson (1973) notes: "Played by a few Missouri fiddlers in ... the early 1930's but is seldom heard any more." The tune was actually a Tin-Pan-Alley song from Christmas, 1893, written by prolific songwriter wikipedia:Harry_S._Miller and popularized by New York entertainer and Broadway impresario wikipedia:Tony_Pastor. The song entered folk tradition and there are numerous verses and variations of the lyric, but the stable chorus goes:
But the cat came back, he couldn't stay no longer,
Yes the cat came back de very next day,
the cat came back—thought she were a goner,
But the cat came back for it wouldn't stay away.
It was popularized among country musicians in the early 78 RPM era through recordings by north Georgia's wikipedia:Fiddlin'_John_Carson and wikipedia:Riley_Puckett, and by Kentucky's wikipedia:Fiddlin'_Doc_Roberts. It was later recorded by fiddler wikipedia:Tommy_Jackson_(musician), and (late in his career) wikipedia:Clark_Kessinger.
