Tom Dooley (song)
"Tom Dooley" is a North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina, allegedly by Tom Dula. The song is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio, which reached No. 1 in Billboard and the Billboard R&B listing, and appeared in the Cashbox Country Music Top 20.
The song was selected as one of the American Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
"Tom Dooley" fits within the wider genre of Appalachian "sweetheart murder ballads". A local poet named Thomas Land wrote a song about the tragedy, titled "Tom Dooley", shortly after Dula was hanged. In the documentary Appalachian Journey, folklorist Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song, which was misleading only in that he didn't write it. There are several earlier known recordings, notably one that Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately 10 years before Proffitt cut his own recording.
The Kingston Trio took their version from Frank Warner's singing. Warner had learned the song from Proffitt, who learned it from his Aunt Nancy Prather, whose parents had known both Laura Foster and Tom Dula. In a 1967 interview, Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio recounts first hearing the song from another performer, and then being criticized and sued for taking credit for the song.
Supported by the testimony of Anne and Frank Warner, Frank Proffitt was eventually acknowledged by the courts as the preserver of the original version of the song, and the Kingston Trio were ordered to pay royalties to him for their uncredited use of it.
History
In 1866, Laura Foster was murdered. Confederate veteran Tom Dula, Foster's lover and the father of her unborn child, was convicted of her murder and hanged May 1, 1868. Foster had been stabbed to death with a large knife, and the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity of the murder and subsequent trial received.Anne Foster Melton, Laura's cousin, had been Dula's lover from the time he was twelve and until he left for the Civil War – even after Anne married an older man named James Melton. When Dula returned, he became a lover again to Anne, then Laura, then their cousin Pauline Foster. Pauline's comments led to the discovery of Foster's body and accusations against both Tom and Anne. Anne was subsequently acquitted in a separate trial, based on Dula's word that she had nothing to do with the killing. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her.
Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy soon after Dula was hanged titled "Tom Dooley". Combined with the widespread publicity the trial received, Land's song further cemented Dula's place in North Carolina legend is still sung today throughout North Carolina.
A man named "Grayson", mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was involved in returning him to North Carolina but otherwise played no role in the case.
Dula was tried in Statesville because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted and hanged on May 1, 1868. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."
Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry". The confusion was compounded by the fact that Dr. Tom Dooley, an American physician known for international humanitarian work, was at the height of his fame in 1958 when the Kingston Trio version became a major hit.
Recordings
Several notable recordings have been made:- In 1929, G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter made the first recorded version of Land's song by a group well known at the time, for Victor.
- Frank Warner, Elektra, 1952. Warner, a folklorist, unaware of the 1929 recording, in 1940 took down the song from Frank Proffitt and passed it to Alan Lomax who published it in Folk Song: USA.
- On March 30, 1953, the CBS radio series Suspense_ broadcast a half-hour "Tom Dooley" drama loosely based on the song, which was sung during the program by actor Harry Dean Stanton. While not issued as a commercial recording, transcription discs of the broadcast eventually were digitized and circulated by old time radio collectors.
- The Folksay Trio, which featured Erik Darling, Bob Carey and Roger Sprung, issued the first post-1950 version of the song for American Folksay-Ballads and Dances, Vol. 2 on the Stinson label in 1953. Their version was noteworthy for including a pause in the line "Hang down your head Tom...Dooley"; the Kingston Trio's version included the same pause. The group reformed in 1956 as The Tarriers, featuring Darling, Carey and Alan Arkin, and released another version of "Tom Dooley" for The Tarriers on the Glory label in 1957.
- Paul Clayton, a singer-songwriter and folklorist, recorded "Tom Dooley" on Bloody Ballads: British and American Murder Ballads for Riverside Records in 1956.
- The Kingston Trio recorded the most popular version of the song, in 1958, for Capitol. This recording sold in excess of six million copies, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is often credited with starting the "folk music boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. It only had three verses. This recording of the song has been inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress and been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. The Grammy Foundation named it one of the Songs of the Century.
- Lonnie Donegan covered The Kingston Trio's version of Land's song in the UK, later in 1958. This version charted in the United Kingdom simultaneously with the Kingston Trio's. Its uptempo skiffle style was a contrast to the U.S. version's slower arrangement.
- Line Renaud recorded a French-language version, "Fais Ta Prière ", in 1959. The song was released on Renaud's album Les souvenirs sont faits de ça, and is also available on the compilation "Line: 100 chansons."
- Les Compagnons de la chanson also recorded "Tom Dooley " in February 1959.
- The George Garabedian Troubadours recorded a Cha-cha-cha version in 1959 which is referenced in Sam Cooke's song Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha
- Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Sentimental Side.
- Doc Watson, Vanguard Records, 1964. Watson performed the older version of the song, similar to Grayson and Whitter, that he had learned from his grandmother.
- Television host Jack Narz recorded his version of "Tom Dooley" for his album Sing the Folk Hits With Jack Narz in 1959.
- Frank Proffitt sings the song on "Newport Folk Festival 1964: The Evening Concerts, Volume 1", Vanguard Records, 1964.
- The Hiltonaires recorded a Mento version of the song in 1965 for legendary Jamaican record label 'Studio One', released on their album Ska-Motion in Ska-lip-so in 1966.
- Bill Morrissey & Greg Brown recorded a version in 1993 using the title "Tom Dula" and credited Frank Profitt as songwriter.
- Carolina Chocolate Drops recorded a version on their album Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind.
- Neil Young and Crazy Horse recorded an eight-minute version on their 2012 album Americana, on which they retitled the song to the proper spelling "Tom Dula" and pronounced it in such a way as to make it a political statement against former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
- Macabre Minstrels recorded a version on their EP .
- In 1973, German Schlager singer Heino sang a German version of the song entitled "Tom Dooley" giving credit to Dave Guard, one of the founders of The Kingston Trio.
- The Grateful Dead on their 1981 album Reckoning, released a 1978 live acoustic recording of Tom Dooley. It is similar to Grayson and Whitter's version.
- The chorus of the song is sung by camp counsellors in the horror film, Friday the 13th, which opens with a flashback to 1958.
Parodies
- The Four Preps used this song and Worried Man Blues to make fun of The Kingston Trio in their song More Money For You and Me.
- Ella Fitzgerald drops an altered line from the song into a recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
- The Incredible Bongo Band recorded the song "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Your Tie's Caught In Your Zipper".
- The Smothers Brothers did a version on their album "The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers! Recorded at the Purple Onion, San Francisco" where they referenced the law suit against The Kingston Trio by claiming that Dickie Smothers had written it, and The Kingston Trio had stolen it.
- The Capitol Steps used this song to make fun of Tom Daschle on their 2003 album Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Chart positions
| Chart | Peak position |
| Australian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 1 |
| South African Charts | 8 |
| U.K. Singles Chart | 5 |
All-time charts
In film and television
The Kingston Trio hit inspired the film, The Legend of Tom Dooley, starring Michael Landon, co-starring Richard Rust. A Western set after the Civil War, it was not about traditional Tom Dula legends or the facts of the case, but a fictional treatment tailored to fit the lyrics of the song."Tom Dooley" is the name of a season 5 episode of Ally McBeal, in which John Cage sings a version of the song with his Mexican band.
The song was parodied in episode No. 702 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Crow T. Robot, motivated by one actor's resemblance to Thomas Dewey, sang a version beginning "Hang down your head, Tom Dewey."
Glada Barn's version of Land's song closes Rectify season 2 episode "Mazel Tov".
In the 1980 film Friday the 13th, the campers in the opening scene start to sing the song. The opening scene is set in 1958, the year the Kingston Trio version of the song debuted.