I whistle and wait for Katie

AKA Whistle and wait for Kate
I whistle and wait
First Published 1890
Writer/composer Michael Nolan Roud RN37172

Music Hall Performers Michael Nolan
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Sargent, Irene; USA: Arkansas; 1960		 

I Whistle and Wait for Katie.
Written and Composed by Michael Nolan. Arranged by John S. Baker.

After business you will find me, every night as sure as fate,
At the corner of the street here, waiting for my bonnie Kate;
Her papa has quite forbidden young men to the house to go.
In consequence of which I whistle, just to let my true love know.

I am waiting here to greet blue-eyed Kate with kisses sweet;
Every night at the end of the street I whistle and wait for Katie.

You may think it awkward standing in a business street like this,
But I'm sure you would not mind it could you meet so sweet a Miss;
Of course I wait till all is still, see there's no one passing by,
Before I venture on the whistle, known alone to "Kate and I." 

How her father means to take it, When he hears the news, forsooth,
I wonder what he'll say to Katie when he learns It is the truth;
I've at least this consolation, that my heart is just and right.
Therefore I shall fondly whistle for my Katie every night.

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.

In the UK it was a hit in the Halls for the man who wrote and composed it, the Irish comic Michael Nolan. 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”.

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.

Here is a magnificent cowboy version from the 1930s

Extract from Pinto Pete and His Ranch Boys episode 58

Sources: