Traditional American · Key of G · Public domain
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This chart is written in G. Tap any key above the chart to see the whole song in that key, with every chord already worked out. To stay in G with different chord shapes, play it capo 3 with the E shapes, or capo 5 with the D shapes, or capo 7 with the C shapes. Singing with a group? Pick the key where the highest note is comfortable for everyone, then print that page.
The song first appeared in print in 1894 as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, the Princeton University song book, arranged for a student quartet and copyrighted that year by Martin R. Dennis & Co. Nobody knows who wrote it. The railroad verse was probably sung by work gangs long before Princeton printed it (Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 collection On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs gives it as a song of Southern railroad hands), and the opening phrase of the tune has been compared to the cello solo in Franz von Suppe's 1846 Poet and Peasant overture. By 1917 it was in college songbooks in its modern spelling, and the Shannon Quartet made the first known recording for Victor in 1923.
Ten years after the Princeton printing the tune was borrowed for "The Eyes of Texas," written in 1903 and still sung at University of Texas games. The "Dinah, won't you blow" chorus was familiar enough by 1923 for a Nebraska sportswriter to tease a pitcher named Dinah with it. The "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" ending that most people add today is a separate, later song, so this chart stops where the 1920s songbooks did. The words and melody on this page are in the public domain.
Five open chords in G: G, C, D7, A7 and B7, in a steady 4/4 at a marching pace. The verse starts on G, drops to C for "all the livelong day," and the one change to learn is A7 to D7 on "just to pass the time away." The third line rises through C to a B7 on "morn," and the last line goes C, G, D7, G on "Dinah, blow your horn." The chorus is just G, C, D7 and back to G, twice. Strum down-down-up on each beat like wheels on rails, and get the room to shout "Dinah, blow your horn" together; if B7 is too much for a beginner, G works there too.
Tap any chord for its diagram, other voicings, and the notes inside it.
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Further reading: I've Been Working on the Railroad (Wikipedia)
