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The official state song of Oklahoma is not a waltz, it is the Rodger and Hammerstein's classic Oklahoma!. But in 1982, as part of the Oklahoma's Diamond Jubilee Celebration of its 75th year as a state, they named Oklahoma Wind as the official state waltz.
In a private communication, Dr. Dale, as he called by most people who know him, shared the thoughts he wanted to express in Oklahoma Wind. Here are his words:
I have always had a great sense of pride in my home state of Oklahoma. Over time, I wrote songs about Her but, generally speaking, my early compositions were stories about how I was emotionally impacted. My compositions related to my family pride and the feeling of my perceived roots. My father was a very intelligent but never schooled. He could not read or write. He was a loving and kind man, as was my mother. I was proud of my dad. I spoke of him in a line in a song..."I'm proud to be the son of a son of Oklahoma and you can bet your life, like him, I'm here to stay....."
As can be noted in nearly all of my songs, Oklahoma historical events are at the base of the compositions. For the song "Oklahoma Wind", I site major prevalent historical episodes. I wanted the lyrics to call these events to mind. "In an ancient sunrise lighting the sky, men and spirits came riding by on the land that was taken by you and I, in the wind..." Of course, this is a reference to the land being taken from the Native Americans. Another reference is..." the wind kept blowin' and moved us with haste. We devoured this country just for the taste of the land that was theirs, Lord, what a waste, in the wind!"
The second episode references the Western movement and the great Land Run of 1889. ....."Just a driftin' cowboy ridin' along, I heard the wind call and I had to belong to the land that was callin' and growin' up strong, in the wind. We waited for the signal to start the race, all we had to do was to drive our stakes in the land that was willin' to give us a place in the wind." Anyone who participated in the Land Run could claim and was given the right to 60 acres of land around the point in which they drove their stake.
The third episode references the Oklahoma drought (dust bowl era) of the 1930s. The verse further refers to the 'grit' of those who stayed in Oklahoma (my father and mother) while, at the same time. there was an on-going 'Okie' exodus to California. The last two lines is a statement about Oklahoma's recovery...."and now she's (the wind) blowin' across the plain, over fields of golden grain. Everybody knows She's alive again, in the wind".
As earlier stated, my compositions are all about our history. My hope has always been to find a way to have young Oklahoma students know more about our State history. As an educator, I think it is important to have young people know more about WHO WE ARE. To achieve this, young people need to know WHERE WE'VE BEEN. Ultimately, this foundation will help them take us to WHERE WE ARE GOING. After all, the wind keeps blowing.
No shortage of Oklahoma Waltzes - maybe one of the longest lists. Most popular recording appears to be that of Johnny Bond, "It happened in old Oklahoma" or the polka version of the same song usually called Old Oklahoma Waltz first recorded by Yankovic. Eliminates verse, just uses chorus and changes order of lyrics.
not a waltz but Johnny Bond sings Oklahoma Hills live here - https://youtu.be/t7YkcqLF1oI
In 1958, the polka musician Frankie Yankovic recorded his version which includes only the chorus.
1947, Jack Perry and the Light Crust Doughboys - not johnny bond "beautiful, beautiful Oklahoma.
Bernie and Blondie Roberts moon sailing on high. polka version with full lylrics.
full polka version
Byron Berline - not the Johnny bond tune. instrumental
Spade Cooley "come to Oklahoma" - not the Johnny Bond tune
Teresa Black -on sunday, my pop would drive us" not Johnny Bond tune.
Karaoke from Phillipines?? Johnny Bond tune
another cover from Phillipines? https://youtu.be/Yv8GkXzmhV4
It's big in the Philipines - https://youtu.be/ou1EYtdABnw
cover - johnny bond - https://youtu.be/kF_fPtxjcAM
cover johnny bond - https://youtu.be/ZNxSWRszSZw
amateur fiddle, not sure which version - https://youtu.be/gtMfeGmRuTg
cover - johnny bond - https://youtu.be/5pnpjlKfPP0
civer - johnny bond, first polka version - Frankie Yankovic - https://youtu.be/MpQbhN80Pqs
Chicken in the Snowbank - sounds like a new version - instrumental not johnny bond
Mistletoe version - composers listed in video melody very close to Bond but words quite different.
Oklahoma Waltz, "When we were dancing beneath the prairie moon" by Kelly McCune and Border Radio not johnny bond
Gene Ray, "we were dancing to the music of the Oklahoma Waltz" composer listed on label not johnny bond.
not johnny bond
Don Boots, not bond "oh the band was playing the oklahoma waltz
Peter Watercott, instrumental - nice
Kenny Waters, "I remember when I was but a child"
Waltz me Across Oklahoma
Acie Cargill, "Please give my your hand I'll lead you out to the dance floor" - very fast waltz
Bob Wills, Good Old Oklahoma - wonderful
Tom Paxton, Home, Sweet Oklahoma - very nice.
1948, Cowboy Copas, Rose of Oklahoma. written by Rose E. Black
Richie Lawrence, My Oklahoma Hills - different, very solemn.
Riders in the Sky, My Oklahoma
All Across Oklahoma
Jason Eklund, Loves in Oklahoma
Steve Young, My Oklahoma - different song from Riders in the Sky
Wilf Carter, My Oklahoma Rose
My Rose of Oklahoma, mystery record may or may not be different listen better
Carter Sampson, Queen of Oklahoma
Wink Burcham, Town in Oklahoma
Ramos y Ortega, La Tragedia de Oklahoma, Part 1. Part 2 is here.
Don Williams, Where the Arkansas River Leaves Oklahoma
Scud Mountain Boys, Oklahoma
Dan Bern, Oklahoma - tribute to the bombing in Tulsa
Kevin Danzig, Oklahoma Miner
Oscar Brand, Oklahoma Moon
Snow Brothers, Oklahoma Moon (different than above)
Freddy Pigg, Oklahoma Rose
John Nelson, Oklahoma Saturday Night
Prior to 1953, our first-and-only state song was "Oklahoma, a Toast," written by Harriet Parker Camden in 1905 and revised by Marie Crosby. It was adopted as the state song on March 26, 1935, at which time the Legislature noted that most schools have been singing it for years already. https://youtu.be/zO-nUc4wyyk
The Junior Chamber of Commerce named first state song of Oklahoma was Pinky Tomlin's 1938 hit In Ole Oklahoma. Never agreed to by legislature. They picked oklahoma, a Toast. The state song for Oklahoma is, no surprise here, the Oscar Hammerstein classic, Oklahoma! from the 1943 musical by the same name. The surprise is that in 1982, the state legislature designated Oklahoma Wind by Dr. Dale Smith as the official state waltz.
don't forget that oh what a beautiful morning comes from the broadway show Oklahoma
The official state song of Ohio is a waltz, Beautiful Ohio! Beautiful Ohio was written in 1918. The book Music of the First World War by Don Tyler suggests that song was first published as a piano solo and was used to accompany acrobatic acts in vaudeville. The composer was listed as Mary Earl which most references list as a pseudonym for Robert King but other references claim that King was a pseudonym for a man whose birth name was Robert Keiser (1862-1932). Earl/King/Keiser was a prolific composer who according to David A. Jasen's book A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody and other Favorite Song Hits, 1918-1919 also composed under the names Vivian Grey, Ed Haley, Kathleen A. Roberts, R.A. Wilson and Mrs. Ravenhall. Keiser/King was hired in 1918 by Tin Pan Alley music publishers Shapiro, Bernstein in New York to compose one song per week. One of the first written under that contract was Beautiful Ohio. Lyrics to the song were written by Ballard MacDonald (1882-1932) and clearly refer to the Ohio River, not to the state. It was almost immediately a very popular song with recordings of both vocal and orchestral dance versions appearing almost simultaneously. One of the earliest recordings was by Joseph Knecht's Waldorf Astoria Orchestra issued in November, 1918 on Victor (18526) which can be heard below.
The real hit came when Henry Burr (1882-1941), a Canadian tenor, recorded the song in November, 1918 on Columbia (2701). The record was released to the public in April of 1919 and by May it was the largest selling record in America (it helped that I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles was on the flip side). It went on to sell 674,000 copies which, according to music historian Tim Brooks, made it the second largest selling record of the 1901-1934 period (Dardanella by Prince's Dance Orchestra was the largest with 832,000 copies). Burr (his birth name was Harry Haley McClaskey) was an incredibly busy musician who estimated that he had made more than 12,000 recordings as a soloist or member of a duet, trio or quartet. He recorded not only under the Henry Burr name but under many pseudonyms including Irving Gillette, Henry Gillette, Alfred Alexander, Robert Rice, Carl Ely, Harry Barr, Frank Knapp, Al King and Shamus McClaskey. Here is Burr's big hit - Beautiful Ohio.
While the publisher, Shapiro, Bernstein, no doubt benefited from the sale of the records, the bulk of their earnings came from the sale of sheet music. There were two editions in 1918, a standard version of the sheet music featured Mary Earl in large print and Ballard MacDonald in small print and cost fifty cents and a deluxe version which added a color cover, gave MacDonald equal billing and raised the price to sixty cents. Copies of both versions of the original music are still readily available on ebay. The music in both is identical and includes a vocal obligato, a simple counter melody which was to be sung with the second chorus. Calling it an obligato is the composer's way of saying "don't leave this out - it's important." But leave it out performers did. In the Henry Burr hit, the obligato is there but it is played by a muted trumpet, not sung as indicated on the score. It was only after sampling many recordings on YouTube that a version that included the vocal obligato was found. It was recorded in the United Kingdom in 1919 by a duo known as The Elliotts on Winner (3375). The obligato begins at about 1 minute and 50 seconds into the video.
The song was widely recorded when it first came out. Discogs lists some 34 recordings in the 1919-1921 period. Other recordings followed but infrequently until the 1950's when the advent of popular musical entertainment television shows brought back interest and some 100 or so new recordings were issued. The interest peaked in the 1960's where Discogs lists nearly 200 new recordings.
Perhaps because of this peak of interest, the State of Ohio took notice of the songs popularity and in 1969, the state legislature made Beautiful Ohio the official state song. Prior to 1969, Ohio did not have a state song although in the 1950's a Big Top Peanut Butter glass did declare (unofficially) that Down by the O-hi-o by Jack Yellen and Abe Olman was the state song.
Wilbert Bernard McBride (1915-2002), an attorney from Youngstown, Ohio, decided to rewrite the words to more appropriately reflect on the state of Ohio and in 1989, the state legislature adopted his lyrics for the official state version of Beautiful Ohio. Apparently the people of Ohio don't agree with the change because all recordings found to-date, even those which are recent and claim to be the official state song, still use Ballard MacDonald's original lyrics. Perhaps McBride's lyrics which include the memorable line "Mighty factories seem to hum a tune, so grand" just can't compete with "Looking in a pair of eyes that looked in mine."
While it is not a waltz, it is worth pointing out that Ohio has managed to bring Beautiful Ohio to the football field by creating a 4/4 march version, arranged by Richard Heine.
Beautiful Ohio is second only to Tennessee Waltz in being a widely known and popular state waltz. There are literally hundreds of recordings in almost any genre that can be imagined from blues and jazz to country and orchestral. It has been performed by artists ranging from Tiny Tim to Glenn Miller, from Kate Smith to Connie Francis and from Liberace to Chet Atkins. The popularity of Beautiful Ohio seems to have encouraged the creation of other waltzes celebrating Ohio. Examples follow.
In 1921, Robert King/Keiser, again composing under the name of Mary Earl, along with lyricist Ballard MacDonald tried to recapture the magic with a second Ohio waltz, this one titled By the Old Ohio Shore. Sheet music was issued and a few recordings were made but it never escaped the shadow of Beautiful Ohio. Here is an instrumental version.
The Library of Congress collection of notated music contains the scores of four 19th century Ohio waltzes. The earliest is a student piano piece written by John R. Jennings in 1840. It was part of a suite of three state waltzes honoring Indiana and Kentucky in addition to Ohio. The piece was dedicated to William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippecanoe, who served as both a Congressman and Senator for the state of Ohio before his brief (31 days) tenure as the ninth President of the United States in 1841. You can find the score for the Ohio portion of the suite here and you can listen to a computer rendition of the waltz below.
In 1878, Mrs. J.H St. Lawrence wrote a set of four songs for piano or cabinet organ which were published as Prairie Breezes. Three of the songs were marches but the fourth was a waltz titled Ohio Waltz. You can find a copy here. In 1877, J.E. Ebrenz composed a lengthy suite of three waltzes titled On the Beautiful Ohio. You can find a copy here. And, in 1880, Wm.J. Smith wrote a waltz titled On the Ohio which you can find here. The score noted that Smith was a blind pianist who also composed "Parlor Waltz, Exposition Waltz, Moonlight Serenade Waltz, &c, &c."
Returning to the 20th century, Raymond Fairchild has been one of the world's best banjo pickers for forty years or so. He was voted best banjo player for a five year period, 1987-1991, and designed one of the more collectible banjos around, the Cox-Fairchild banjo. During that peak period of fame he wrote and recorded Ohio Waltz (of the Year) which was released in 1989 on an LP titled Me and My Banjo at Home in Maggie Valley Atteiram (API-L-1655) label. You can hear it below.
Interestingly, just 16 miles south of Raymond Fairchild's birthplace of Cherokee, NC in the town of Sylva, NC was born another banjo player, Tony Ellis. The two are within a year or two of being the same age. Fairchild made his home in North Carolina but Ellis moved to Virginia with his family at an early age - he still has a soft Virginia accent. After high school, he spent a couple of years touring as the banjo player with Bill Monroe's band before dropping out to go to college and study accounting. A job with a paper company eventually led him to his current home in Circleville, Ohio in appropriately named Pickaway county. There is a wonderful interview with Ellis on YouTube put together by the Ohio Arts Council which gives you some real insight into the man and his music. In 2003, that same Council named Ellis one of the first Ohio Heritage Fellows. In the interview Ellis talks about his world-wide tours with his wife and son, his appearances on stage with Steve Martin and about the unusual old-time tunings he employs to create memorable tunes that sound like old folk songs. He offers a number of examples of his tunes during the interview but, sadly, does include his Ohio Waltz which he recorded in 1998 on his Quaker World CD. Even better than that CD is the live version below.
Tony Ellis's Ohio Waltz is elevated above the others in this blog by the fact that it has been covered by two other bands. In 2013, a band called Snow Hill Strings recorded it on an album titled Babes in the Woods. The musicians are Palmer Loux and Sue Shumaker on fiddle accompanied by Greg Loux on guitar and Gordon Arnold on cello. The Loux's (a married couple) are usually found in the Philadelphia, PA band called Run of the Mill String Band. Shumaker is also a fiddler familiar to the Philadelphia/Brandywine old-time music community and has played in the past with Run of the Mill. On the other hand, Gordon Arnold, a retired IBM'er who lives in Cary, North Carolina, appears to be a new musical acquaintance. Arnold is one of the few musicians who are comfortable playing old-time music on the cello and is usually found playing with the Rip the Calico contra-dance band. His presence and the intertwining fiddles of Loux and Shumaker make their Ohio Waltz very special.
The second cover of Ellis's Ohio Waltz is by Rik Barron and Duncan Wells, You can find it in the 2019 recording Rollin' Home. Barron takes the tune back closer to its roots with a sparse but lovely arrangement with banjo (Barron), guitar (Wells) and a simple bass line played by Chili Taylor.
Writing waltzes about Ohio continues into the 21st century. Jake Speed (apparently his real name) is known as the Woody Guthrie of Cincinnati according to the bio on his website. He has been entertaining Cincinnati for nearly twenty years with a variety of musicians forming a band called the Freddies (Fred is an acronym for the Flashing Rear End Device on the back of a train). Jake and the Freddies have been the opening act for almost every big name band that appears in Cincinnati and even appeared on Prairie Home Companion when that show originated in Cincinnati.They have also found time to make a number of recordings with national distribution including one in 2004 titled Huzzah which contains a tune he wrote titled Ohio River Waltz. You can hear the recorded version here on YouTube but this blog prefers the live version below.
If favorites were allowed in this blog, this next waltz would be it for Ohio. It's Waltz of the Ohio, an instrumental composed by Fats Kaplin and played by Kaplin and George Bradfute on the 2006 CD, The Fatman Cometh . Good luck in finding that CD though, it was a limited edition with hand-printed covers, so rare it doesn't even show up on ebay. You can find it today in the double album issued in 2013 by Kaplin's own label, Pulp Country, with the title Fats Kaplin Plays the Fatman Cometh and World of Wonder. Kaplin, whose real name is Frank Ambrose Thomas Slate Kaplin (named thusly by his father who was a "Fats" Waller scholar in hopes that the acronymic nickname would stick - it did, except for his maternal grandmother who always called him Ambrose) is a multi-instrumentalist in strong demand in Nashville.* More recently he has moved into the spotlight as a headline performer with his wife, the vocalist Kristi Rose. But in the video clip below it is just Kaplin on fiddle (and probably on the mandolin) with Bradfute on guitar, bass and cello playing the beautiful Waltz of the Ohio.
In 2015, old-time fiddler and song creator, Kenny Jackson recorded an album titled The Shortest Day which contained a waltz he wrote titled Ohio Waltz. Jackson is a student of old-time fiddling as well as a teacher of the same (he also teaches banjo, mandolin and flat-picking guitar). He teaches by Skype, in his home in North Carolina and at many fiddle camps around the country. It was perhaps at one of those fiddle camps that the video below was made. Jackson is joined by two other stars in the old-time music world - husband and wife team, Erynn Marshall (fiddle) and Carl Jones (guitar) to play Jackson's Ohio Waltz.
The name of the band, Acid Ears, suggests that this next waltz celebrating Ohio might not be an old-time tune. That suggestion would be correct. Acid Ears is an Oxford, Ohio based progressive rock band - Jack Nutall on vocals and guitar, John Troll on bass and Sam Bryant on drums. This is one of the few waltzes you will find played by any kind of rock band. It's titled Ohio Waltz Capitol - strange title, strange waltz.
This blog is still seeking a digital copy of Drifting Down the Dreamy Ol' Ohio Waltz recorded in 1950 by Arthur Godfrey on Columbia 38882. According to the label on the record the waltz was written by Jack Elliot (words) and Harold Spina (music) and performed by Arthur Godfrey and all The Little Godfreys which apparently includes Archie Bleyer, Janette Davis, the Cordettes, the Mariners and 20 Ukuleles. Sounds interesting. If you have a copy you can share, please leave a comment below.
A search of digitized copyright records available on Internet Archive found the following additional waltzes celebrating Ohio. There is no indication that any of these were published or publicly performed.
1894, Moonlight on the Ohio Waltz, to Mary M. Donehoo.
1900, A Letter from Ohio; waltz. Arranged for orchestra by W. H. Mackie.
1907, Echoes from the Ohio; waltz. By Jerry Bundy.
1912, Sounds from the Ohio Waltz: valse elegante by Karl Merz, ed. and fingered by R. de Roode
1931, In the Hills of old Ohio; waltz. Words and music to B.N. Benoit
1932, Take me back to my Ohio; waltz. Melody to Harry P. Guy.
1938, Overflowing Ohio; waltz. Melody to Ben Adelman
1938, Drifting on the Old Ohio; waltz. Words to Austin B. Dixon , music to Luther A. Clarke, arrangement to Dela Weber.
1945, Apple Blossom Time in Ohio; waltz. Words and melody to Naomi Lessing
1949, Ohio Waltz, words and music to Fred W. Evans
1949, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Joe William Tanner
1951, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Walter Lawrence Thress
1952, New Ohio Waltz, words and music to Dennis Wendell Lewis and Herbert Tillman Lewis
1952, Ohio Waltz, words and music to James Alexander Gerwick
1953, The Ohio Waltz, words and music to Clarence Joseph Huntington
1961, Ohio Waltz, words and music to Henry Harrison (Wooden) and Lula Mae Harrison (Wooden)
1967, The Ohio Waltz. Words, music and arrangement to Opal Skaggs.
1969, The River Ohio Waltz. Words and music to Frank W. Lewis.
1975, The Beautiful Ohio Waltz. Words and music to Luther Morgan
And finally, for those who make their own music, here is a simplified score for the official Ohio state song (a waltz).
*It's true that Fats is a multi-instrumentalist who is strong demand in Nashville but the rest of this sentence is fake news.
The official state song of North Dakota, North Dakota Hymn, is not a waltz. There is an official state march, The Flickertail March, but there is no official state waltz. There almost was an official state waltz. In February, 2011, the North Dakota state senate voted 32-14 that Dancing Dakota should not be the state waltz. Dancing Dakota was written by Mandan, North Dakota resident Chuck Suchy in 1989 to help celebrate North Dakota's centenial. Tom Isern, a well known plains historian based in Fargo, North Dakota and the blogger, Jim Fuglie, joined to lobby a series of politicians to make Dancing Dakota the state waltz. You can read it about it here and here. The result was ND SB2194 making the proposal official. It was that bill which was rejected. Suchy is a well known North Dakota singer/songwriter - the best known, in fact. There are more than 50 YouTube videos of Suchy singing the songs he has written including Dancing Dakota.
Careful listeners will note that Suchy's lyrics never mention North Dakota - just Dakota, but it is clearly a waltz celebrating North Dakota. Like North and South Carolina it is difficult sometimes to distinguish which state is being celebrated in a waltz. As we did with the Carolinas, ambiguous waltzes will be associated with both states in this blog.
Only one Dakota waltz was found which specifically mentions North Dakota in the lyrics and that is North Dakota Waltz written by Dan Smith and performed by the Kansas City band, Riverrock, on the CD, Shuddup & Party, issued in 2011. Riverrock is almost up there with the Rolling Stones in longevity - they were established in 1974 and still perform with three of the original band members. Dan Smith, the composer of North Dakota Waltz, is one of those original member of the band and performs percussion and vocals. He is a clever lyricist as a listen to the tune below will demonstrate.
The remaining waltzes are "Dakota" waltzes, not specific to North or South Dakota. The earliest Dakota waltz is Dacota Waltz, a piano piece composed in 1858 by Louis Wallis (1827-1905). Dacota is an early alternate spelling of Dakota - the word itself comes from a regional Native American language and means something like allies or friends. The word came to describe the groups of Native Americans that lived in the northern Mississippi valley and their shared language. In 1858, your could have read about Dacota country referring to the general area part of which which became the Dakota territory in 1861 and from which the states of North and South Dakota were formed in 1889.
The earliest waltz celebrating the Dakotas is from 1858. You can find a copy of the original score in the wonderful Levy Sheet Music Collection of Johns Hopkins University. A computer created version of the piece can be heard below.
Dan Zahn and Kate Moretti from Lake Zurich, Illinois perform together with some friends as Briar Road. Their latest CD is titled East Dakota Waltz and does indeed include the song East Dakota Waltz which was written by Zahn. The recorded performance is by Zahn and Moretti joined by Martin Brunkalla (a noted luthier as well as a fine fiddler) and bass player, Rusty Winchel. Its title gives it a right to be included here but, in reality, it is actually a waltz about Minnesota as explained in a personal communication from Dan Zahn. He tells the story behind the song this way.
As a folk singer/songwriter, I traveled to perform several concerts in the southwestern Minnesota, South Dakota area. I had the good fortune of staying with a family of farmers in Minnesota just a few miles from the S.D. state line before leaving for Sioux Falls.
My host explained to me that the soil they farmed in his corner of MN was exactly the same as that of their neighbors to the west and that he and other farmers in his area lovingly referred to their land as “East Dakota”.
That evening after dinner, while sitting in their living room, I picked out an original melody on my mandolin and my host and his wife stood up and began waltzing across the living room floor. I decided to name the tune, “The East Dakota Waltz” in honor of my new friends.
Take a listen to East Dakota Waltz below.
One which was missed and needs to be incorporated in this blog [8/8/19]
The most intriguing title for a Dakota waltz is The Mosquitoes of Dakota Waltz by Felix Villiet Vinatieri (1837-1891). Vinatieri's story is almost as intriguing. In 1873, he joined Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer's 800 man army as chief musician. He and his sixteen member band accompanied Custer to that famous "last stand" at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 26, 1876. He was spared because Custer ordered the musicians to stay on the supply boat on the nearby Powder River rather than join the battle. Their role became to be medics instead of musicians as they helped treat the wounded brought back to the boat at the end of the battle. The Mosquitoes of Dakota Waltz was written in June, 1874, so Custer no doubt heard and probably enjoyed the tune. It was written for a full band and the score still exists in the Vinatieri Archive at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota. No evidence was found that it has been recorded or even performed in recent times.
A search of the Internet Archive found the following copyrights. No evidence was found that any of these waltzes were performed or recorded.
Windy Dakota, waltz, 1936. Words and music to Sam Adelman Back to Dakota, waltz, 1936. Words and music to Ben Adelman On the farm in North Dakota; waltz, 1937. Words and music to Hertha McCombs When the sun sets in Dakota; waltz, 1938. Words and music to Fern Marion [pseud. of M.F. Newcomb] Dakota Waltz, 1945. Words and music to Lew Tobin Dakota Waltz, 1949. Words to Charles Leonard Cleek and words to Werner Hugo Fack The North Dakota Waltz, 1951. Words and music to Rosanna Gutterud Johnsrud North Dakota Waltz, 1952. Music to Arthur Reinhold Niedan North Dakota Waltz, 1953. Words and music to Ray Pfliger Dakota Waltz, 1957. Words and music to Thelma Chappell Dakota Waltz, 1959. Music and arrangement to Herbert Barfoot Dakota Waltz, 1960. Words and music to Corbin A. Waldron North Dakota Waltz, 1960. Words and music to Peter Clifford Petersen The North Dakota Waltz, 1962. Music to Ken Raymond and arrangement to Larry Crownson North Dakota Waltz, 1964. Words and music to Thelma Thompson
And, finally, a simplified score for Dancing Dakota. It is not possible to capture the magic of this song in written music. The song lends itself well to harmony and Suchy varies the melody a little, both rhythmically and harmonically, each time he sings it. But this score gives pleasure when played along with his singing. Try it.
