"Old Joe Clark" is a US folk song, a mountain ballad that was popular among soldiers from eastern Kentucky during World War I and afterwards.
[1] Its lyrics refer to a real person named Joseph Clark, a Kentucky mountaineer who was born in 1839 and murdered in 1885.
[4] Although "Old Joe Clark" may have originated in the 19th century, no printed records are known from before 1900.
[1] "Old Joe Clark" has been described as "one of the most widely known of all Southern fiddle tunes [as of the late 20th century.
"[3] Gary Cooper sang several verses of this song in the 1945 western, “Along Came Jones”.