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"Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a girl named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio.

Contents 1 History 2 Lyrics 3 Recordings 3.1 Parodies 4 Movie 5 References 6 External links

Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged in 1868. Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.

Dula had a second lover, Anne Melton. It was her comments that led to the discovery of Foster's body; Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on his word. Many believed that Melton was the real killer and that Dula admitted guilt to protect her. This assumption was based on stories at the time that Melton was jealous of Dula's upcoming marriage to Foster, and that she had murdered Foster to eliminate her as a rival for Dula's affections. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and subsequent hanging were given widespread national publicity for the time. Further adding to the Dula legend was the fact that a local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.

A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was personally involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.

Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on May 1, 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."

Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. (The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry").

The doleful ballad was probably first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina. The song was selected as one of the Songs of the Century.

In the documentary Appalachian Journey (1991), Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song. It is unclear exactly what Lomax means by this but, since it seems that the song predates Frank Proffitt's early version, it is likely that Lomax means that Proffitt's version is the one that has become most well known to us because the Kingston Trio derived their interpretation from Proffitt's. Certainly, there is an earlier known recording by Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately ten years before Proffitt cut his own recording of the song.

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.
You left her by the roadside
Where you begged to be excused;
You left her by the roadside,
Then you hid her clothes and shoes.

(Chorus)
Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

You took her on the hillside
For to make her your wife;
You took her on the hillside,
And there you took her life.

You dug the grave four feet long
And you dug it three feet deep;
You rolled the cold clay over her
And tromped it with your feet.

Chorus

"Trouble, oh it's trouble
A-rollin' through my breast;
As long as I'm a-livin', boys,
They ain't a-gonna let me rest.

I know they're gonna hang me,
Tomorrow I'll be dead,
Though I never even harmed a hair
On poor little Laurie's head."

Chorus

"In this world and one more
Then reckon where I'll be;
If is wasn't for Sheriff Grayson,
I'd be in Tennessee.

You can take down my old violin
And play it all you please.
For at this time tomorrow, boys,
Iit'll be of no use to me."

Chorus

"At this time tomorrow
Where do you reckon I'll be?
Away down yonder in the holler
Hangin' on a white oak tree.

Chorus

Several notable recordings have been made:

• Grayson and Whitter, Victor, 1929. The first recorded version by a group well known at the time.

• Frank Warner, Elektra, 1952. Warner, a folklorist, unaware of the 1929 recording, in 1940 took down the song from Frank Proffitt and passed it to Alan Lomax who published it in Folk Song: USA.

• The Kingston Trio, Capitol, 1958. This recording sold in excess of six million copies and is often credited with starting the "folk boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. It only had three verses (and the chorus four times).

• Lonnie Donegan, also 1958. This version charted in the United Kingdom simultaneously with the Kingston Trio's. Its uptempo skiffle style was a contrast to the U.S. version's slower arrangement.

• Doc Watson, Vanguard Records, 1964. This version considerably extended the scope of the song.

Tom Dooley prompted a number of parodies, either as part of other songs (Ella Fitzgerald drops an altered line from the song into a recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) or as entire songs, including one called Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Your Tie's Caught In Your Zipper by the Incredible Bongo Band in 1972.

The song and legend were parodied by a one-record novelty act called Waldo, Dudley and Dora on a 45 rpm Grayson Goofed, issued as Awful Records release #PU-1. Verses sung to the Tom Dooley melody alternate with mini-skits, as "John" Grayson's public reputation erodes from "a fine man" to "a stoolie" (i.e., stool pigeon) to "a gink".

The song was also often parodied by the Smothers Brothers as Tom Crudely, and introduced as being written by Dick Smothers but stolen by that other crass, commercial group.

In Episode #702 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Crow T. Robot, motivated by one actor's resemblance to Thomas Dewey, sang a version beginning "Hang down your head, Tom Dewey."

The Kingston Trio hit inspired a quickie feature film, The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), starring actor Michael Landon. The film was essentially a Western set just after the Civil War. Despite the title, it was not about any traditional Tom Dula legends or about the facts of the actual case, but was a fictional treatment obviously tailored to fit the lyrics of the song.

• Lomax, Alan, Editor, (1947). Folk Song: U.S.A. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. (Also printed under the title Best Loved American Folk Songs).

• West, John Foster (1993). "Lift Up Your Head, Tom Dooley". Asheboro, N.C., Down Home Press.

• Official Website of Tom Dooley

• Website on origins of the song and the Kingston Trio's success with it
• The Legend of Tom Dula
• Tom Dooley: a Wilkes County Legend, a Play
• Tom Dula's story on Wilkes Chamber of Commerce website

Preceded by "It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty

Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (The Kingston Trio version) November 17, 1958

Succeeded by "To Know Him Is to Love Him" by The Teddy Bears