If Jimmy cracked corn & i don care, why is there a song about it?
The 1846 sheet music published by F D Benteen of Baltimore has on the first page: The Virginia Minstrels, No. 5 “Jim Crack Corn” or the Blue Tail Fly. In March of 1843 in Boston four men calling themselves The Virginia Minstrels gave what may have been the first “minstrel” show. The band quickly became very popular and even toured England. They broke up late in 1844. The band members were Richard Pelham on tambourine, William Whitlock on banjo, Frank Brower on bones and Dan Emmett on fiddle and banjo. “De Blue Tail Fly” was apparently used by the Virginia Minstrels and the first published version was by Keith’s of Boston in 1844 as part of “Old Dan Emmit’s Original Banjo Melodies (second series)”. Whether Emmett wrote the tune is uncertain, but that tune was decidedly different from the 1846 published version for which no composer is listed. Similarly the chorus and the “jim crack corn I don’t care…” line are found in the 1846 version but not in the 1844. The 1844 version had 10 vers
