Camptown Races ranks with Oh! Susanna as one of Foster's best nonsense songs. It is interesting to speculate on the possible origin of Foster's idea for Camptown Races. Musically, its refrain is similar to a Negro spiritual, Roll, Jordan Roll. Another old song, Doo-Dah, has passages almost identical with Camptown Races. Did Foster, then, base Camptown Races on a popular folk-song, or are these folk-songs variants and adaptations of Foster's song? These questions cannot be answerfed, for no one knows when the folk-songs originated; whether they came into being earlier or later than Camptown Races.
Camptown Races was copyrighted and first issued by the Baltimore publisher, F.D. Benteen, February 19, 1850. Within a few years the town of Camptown, New Jersey, changed its name to Irvington. A newspaper writer suggested that Foster's race-track song had brought the New Jersey town so much notoriety that its citizens changed the name of their town in self-defense. Careful research into the Irvinton records and into minuted of town meetings has unfortunately failed to verify the tradition.
Camptown Races contains foolishness of a rare quality, and it has been popular for almost a hundred yars. In its early days it was only moderately successful. In a seven-year period after it was first issued, it had earned in royalties $101.25, which represented the sale of a little more than 5,000 copies at two centsa copy. This sale was almost the same as that achieved by Oh! Lemuel! in approximately the same period. Background music is in the key of D.
 Women's T-Shirt with harmonica logo |
6 6 6 5 6 -6 6 5 De Camp-town lad-ies sing dis song, 5 -4 5 -4 Doo-dah! doo-dah! 6 6 6 5 6 -6 6 5 De Camp-town race-track five miles long, -4 5 -4 4 Oh! doo-dah-day! 6 6 6 5 6 6 -6 6 5 I come down dah wid my hat caved in, 5 -4 5 -4 Doo-dah! doo-dah! 6 6 6 5 6 6 -6 -6 6 6 5 I go back home wid a pock-et full of tin, -4 5 -4 4 Oh! doo-dah-day! chorus 4 4 5 6 7 -6 -6 7 -6 6 Gwin to run all night! Gwin to run all day! 5 -5 6 6 5 5 6 6 -6 6 5 I'll bet my mon-ey on de bob-tail nag, -4 -4 5 5 -4 -4 4 Some-bod-y bet on de bay. verse 2 De long tail filly and de big black hoss, Doo dah! doo dah! Dey fly de track and de both cut across Oh! doo dah day! De blind hoss sticken in a big mud hole, Doo dah! doo dah! Can't touch bottom with a ten foot pole Oh doo dah day! verse 3 Old mulley cow come onto de track, Doo dah! doo dah! De bobtail fling her ober his back, Oh! doo dah day! Den fly along like a railroad car, Doo dah! doo dah! Runnin' a race wid a shootin' star Oh! doo dah day! verse 4 See dem flyin' on a ten mile heat, Doo dah! doo dah! Round de race track den repeat, Oh! doo dah day! I win my money on de bobtail nag, Doo dah! doo dah! I keep my money in an old towbag, Oh! doo dah day!
