How a nonsensical folk song launched the first professional songwriter in America

Music · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Stephen Foster’s Oh! Susanna became a massive hit in the mid-19th century, selling over 100,000 copies of sheet music when typical songs barely reached 5,000. Its success transformed the music industry, turning Foster into the first fully professional songwriter in the United States, though he initially earned only $100.

Written in 1846 and published in 1848, Oh! Susanna is a blend of diverse musical influences. While the lyrics feature a banjo, the song’s rhythm is rooted in the polka, a genre that had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Musician Glenn Weiser notes that the composition likely draws inspiration from two 1846 works: Billy Whitlock’s Mary Blane and Silas S. Steele’s Rose of Alabama. The melody of the verse mirrors the former, while the chorus opening closely resembles the latter, which also shares the narrative theme of a traveler searching for a sweetheart.

The song’s path to fame was chaotic. Because minstrel troupes popularized it, many individuals registered the song under their own names to claim copyright. Between February 1848 and February 1851, it was published and copyrighted at least twenty-one times. Despite this, the song’s immense popularity eventually led the firm Firth, Pond & Company to offer Foster a royalty of two cents per copy, a landmark agreement that established his career as a professional songwriter.

The song is also defined by its complicated legacy. The original lyrics were unabashedly racist, containing offensive slurs and depicting black people in derogatory ways. Later versions, including the unofficial anthem of the Forty-Niners, replaced these with references to traveling to California. The song’s nonsensical lines—such as freezing to death in the heat—are often attributed to the redaction of the original, highly offensive verses. Over time, the melody has been adapted by everyone from Bing Crosby and The Byrds to a modern Chinese fast-food chain.

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