There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

Infobox Standard
title=A Hot Time In The Old Town
comment=


image_size=
caption=Sheet music cover (1896).
writer=
composer=Theodore A. Metz
lyricist=Joe Hayden
published=1896
written=
language=English
form=
original_artist=
recorded_by=
performed_by=

"A Hot Time in the Old Town" is an early American jazz song, written in 1896 by Joe Hayden (words) and Theodore August Metz (music). Metz was the band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels.

The song was the unofficial anthem of the American army during the Spanish-American War. [Browne, "The Story of Our National Ballads", p. 208: "The witchery of this tune was such, that during our brief war with Spain, the Spaniards in Cuba were quite convinced that our National Anthem was named 'There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night.' At all events, the frolicsome tones of this unpretentious popular song are the most intimately associated of any, with the already dimming recollections of that 'whirlwind campaign'."]

Lyrics

:Come along get you ready wear your bran, bran new gown,:For dere's gwine to be a meeting in that good, good old town,:Where you knowed ev'ry body, and they all knowed you,:And you've got a rabbits foot to keep away the hoodo;:Where you hear that the preaching does begin,:Bend down low for to drive away your sin:And when you gets religion, you want to shout and sing,:There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, my baby.:"Chorus:"::When you hear dem a bells go ding, ling ling,::All join 'round::And sweetly you must sing, and when the verse am through,::In the chorus all join in,::There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight.

:There'll be girls for ev'ry body in that good, good old town,:For dere's Miss Consola Davis an dere's Miss Gondolia Brown;:And dere's Miss Johanna Beasly she am dressed all in red,:I just hugged her and I kissed her and to me then she said:Please oh, please, Oh, do not let me fall,:You're all mine and I love you best of all,:And you must be my man, or I'll have no man at all,:There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, my baby.:"Chorus" [Hayden, "A Hot Time in the Old Time" (sheet music).]

Pop culture

*The song was extremely popular in America during the early 20th century, and was very well-known at the time.
*The phrase "a hot time in the old town" has become a part of American vernacular.
*At Wisconsin Badgers football games and Fresno State football games, the song is played by the band after their team scores. [ [http://www.badgerband.com/music/hottime.php Hot Time - University of Wisconsin Marching Band ] ]
*The UCLA Band plays this song as the introduction to Rover, the Bruin victory song.
*On the sitcoms Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, an off-key rendition of this song is depicted as the only tune the local band can ever play.

Parody

The song has a very famous parody referring to the Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871; see [http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/leary.htm its page] on the NIEHS website.

References

Bibliography

*Browne, C.A. "The Story of Our National Ballads". New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company (1919).
*Hayden, Joe (w.); Theo A. Metz (m.). "A Hot Time in the Old Time" (sheet music). New York: Willis Woodward & Co. (1896).

External links

*" [http://digital.library.msstate.edu/cdm-SheetMusic/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/SheetMusic&CISOPTR=26037&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 A Hot Time in the Old Town] ". [http://library.msstate.edu/content/templates/?a=1496 The Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Sheet Music Collection] . Mississippi State University.
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/stocks/100010764/0001.mp3 "Hot Time in the Old Town" ] , Victor Military Band (Victor 18371, 1917)— [http://www.loc.gov/performingarts/ Library of Congress "Performing Arts Encyclopedia"] .

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJOGg7hIJ_g YouTube video of song being performed]