In 1985, the Moody Brothers' version of the song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
[1] American folklorist Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) noted in her 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs that several people remembered hearing the song before the war.
The man in Louisiana knew the song from his earliest childhood and heard slaves singing it on plantations.
Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains was on tour in Texas when he heard the song and immediately identified it as an old Irish folk melody, "The Mountain Top".
[6] It was heard by author Louise Clarke Pyrnelle (born 1850) on the Alabama plantation of her father when she was a child.
Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe, I'd er been married long ergo.
Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe, I'd er been married long ergo.
No gal so handsome could be found, Not in all this country round, With her kinky head, and her eyes so bright, With her lips so red and her teeth so white.
And I loved that gal with all my heart, And she swore from me she'd never part; But then with Joe she ran away, And left me here for to weep all day.
Dat gal, she sho' had all my love, An swore fum ne she'd never move, But Joe hoodooed her, don't you see, An' she run off wid him to Tennessee, I'd 'a' been married forty years ago, Ef it hadn't a-been for Cotton-eyed Joe.
[11] A resident of Central Texas who learned the dance in Williamson County in the early 1880s described it as nothing but a heel and toe "poker" with fringes added.
These fringes added to the heel and toe polka were clog steps which required skill and extraversion on the part of the dancer.
[14] A 1967 instrumental version of the song by Al Dean inspired a new round dance polka for couples.