{"id":14977,"date":"2022-02-24T10:22:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T10:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=14977"},"modified":"2022-02-25T11:33:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T11:33:16","slug":"i-whistle-and-wait-for-katie","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/i-whistle-and-wait-for-katie\/","title":{"rendered":"I whistle and wait for Katie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Whistle and wait for Kate
I whistle and wait<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1890<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Michael Nolan<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN37172<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Michael Nolan<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Sargent, Irene; USA: Arkansas; 1960<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I Whistle and Wait for Katie.<\/strong>\nWritten and Composed by Michael Nolan. Arranged by John S. Baker.\n\nAfter business you will find me, every night as sure as fate,\nAt the corner of the street here, waiting for my bonnie Kate;\nHer papa has quite forbidden young men to the house to go.\nIn consequence of which I whistle, just to let my true love know.\n\nI am waiting here to greet blue-eyed Kate with kisses sweet;\nEvery night at the end of the street I whistle and wait for Katie.<\/em>\n\nYou may think it awkward standing in a business street like this,\nBut I'm sure you would not mind it could you meet so sweet a Miss;\nOf course I wait till all is still, see there's no one passing by,\nBefore I venture on the whistle, known alone to \"Kate and I.\" \n\nHow her father means to take it, When he hears the news, forsooth,\nI wonder what he'll say to Katie when he learns It is the truth;\nI've at least this consolation, that my heart is just and right.\nTherefore I shall fondly whistle for my Katie every night.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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This song was a hit in 1890 – published as sheet music in London and Chicago and widely reproduced in cheap songsters and song sheets (like the one shown here) in the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the UK it was a hit in the Halls for the man who wrote and composed it, the Irish comic Michael Nolan<\/a>. As was often the case with the most popular songs, it featured in several Christmas pantomimes in winter 1890\/91. But it was particularly in  America that the song took on a life of its own, where by the 1920s and 30s it was being sung by barbershop quartets and had been adopted as a cowboy song and “barn dance favourite”<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1960  it was collected from the singing of an Ozark traditional singer, Irene Sargent – her version can be heard in the collection of Ozark folk song held at the University of Arkansas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Here is a magnificent cowboy version from the 1930s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Extract from Pinto Pete and His Ranch Boys<\/em> episode 58<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n