Don't Fence Me In (song)

Don't Fence Me In is a popular American song with music by Cole Porter and lyrics by Robert Fletcher and Cole Porter.

Origins

Originally written in 1934 for Adios, Argentina, an unproduced 20th Century Fox film musical, "Don't Fence Me In" was based on text by a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana, Robert (Bob) Fletcher. Cole Porter, who had been asked to write a cowboy song for the 20th Century Fox musical, bought the poem from Fletcher for $250. Porter reworked Fletcher's poem, and when the song was first published, Porter was credited with sole authorship. Porter had wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow that. After the song became popular, however, Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his being given co-authorship credit in subsequent publications. Although it was one of the most popular songs of its time, Porter claimed it was his least favorite of his own compositions.^[1]

The Fletcher poem used would seem to be "Open Range," contained in his 1934 book Coral Dust. The final couplet is "And turn me loose on my cayuse, But please don't fence me in." Apart from that, the rest of the lyrics appear to be Cole's invention, unless he utilized other material from the book.^[2]

Cover versions

Ten years later, in 1944, Warner Bros. resurrected "Don't Fence Me In" for Roy Rogers to sing in the movie, Hollywood Canteen. Many people heard the song for the first time when Kate Smith introduced it on her radio broadcast of October 8, 1944. "Don't Fence Me In" was also recorded by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters in 1944. Crosby entered the studio on July 25, 1944, without having seen or heard the song. Within 30 minutes, he and The Andrews Sisters had made the recording, which later sold over a million copies and topped the Billboard charts for eight weeks in 1944-45.

Ella Fitzgerald recorded this on her Verve Cole Porter Songbook album, it was also released on her Verve release "Ella Fitzgerald Sings More Cole Porter."

Also made famous by the original "Singin' Cowboy" Gene Autry and also Willie Nelson with Leon Russell

Roy Rogers and Don't Fence Me In

The following year, the song was sung again as the title tune of another Roy Rogers film, Don't Fence Me In (1945), in which Dale Evans plays a magazine reporter who comes to Roy Rogers' and George "Gabby" Hayes' ranch to research a story which she is writing about a legendary late gunslinger. When it's revealed that Gabby Hayes is actually the supposedly dead outlaw, Roy must clear his name. Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers also find time to perform some songs, including the Cole Porter title tune.

The next year (1946), a biopic about Cole Porter used a clip from Hollywood Canteen of Rogers singing "Don't Fence Me In."

Pop culture

• David Byrne did a cover of this song in 1990 for a Cole Porter tribute album entitled Red Hot + Blue. Byrne performed what he describes as his "Brazilian" version of the song during his 2004 tour for the Grown Backwards album.^[3]
• Steve Goodman performed the song, including on his album The Easter Tapes recorded during one of his annual visits with New York radio personality Vin Scelsa.
• Lynn Anderson recorded the song for her album Cowboy's Sweetheart in 1992.
• Chumbawamba recorded a version of the song with lead vocals by Danbert Nobacon. A segment of the song featured on the unreleased album Jesus H. Christ that was later reworked to become Shhh! (1992), but "Don't Fence Me In" did not feature on the final album cut.^{[citation needed]}
• The first verse of the song was sung by Apu in The Simpsons episode "The Lastest Gun in the West".
• The song was sung in the 1954 action movie "Hell and High Water." Starring Richard Widmark
• The song was featured in the 1999 film The Bachelor, which follows a sworn bachelor who is reluctant to marry.
• The song was used in the opening credits of the 2000 film Chopper.
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's character Eddie Sakamura sings it at a karaoke bar in the opening scene of the 1993 film Rising Sun. It is also played while the end credits roll.
• Shortly after the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, a communist-run East Berlin radio station called Ops used “Don’t Fence Me In” as the theme song for its nightly propaganda broadcast aimed at Allied soldiers based in West Berlin.^[4]

See also

• List of number-one singles of 1944 and 1945 (U.S.)

References

1. ^ "Don't Fence Me In." Spotlight. Turner Classic Movies. 2008. Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network. Accessed 3 Jun. 2008. [1].
2. ^ Open Range by Robert H. Fletcher [2].
3. ^ David Byrne Journal Entry, davidbyrne.com, accessed 2008-02-29, webpage: 9.21.04: Town Hall with Gilberto Gi.
4. ^ [3] Der Spiegel, 24.01.1962, in German