C - PD Songs
A note on the stuff in parentheses: “c” = circa, “r” = recorded (which doesn't mean copyrighted or "first written"; that may have happened well before), "TA" = Traditional Anonymous. “<” = before, and “>” = after. For instance, a song about a train wreck that happened in 1909 might have a “>” after the date because no one would have written about an event that had not yet occurred (duh). A song found in a book published in 1857 might have a “<” as we know the song was known at least by that date. If you see a date after 1923 followed by "PD", it means the song was apparently known for a long while, but not recorded or put into a song books until the date cited. In most of these cases, the name of the writer was never recorded or is now lost. Or perhaps a name was given that was only a good guess and cannot be proven or dis-proven. An acute observer may notice a disproportionate number of 1927 dates. This is the year Carl Sandburg published his "American Songbag", a cornucopia of old American songs. A question mark (?) means I suspect it belongs in this list, but am less than sure. Whenever I found a choice of two dates, which was frequent, I usually cite the older one. A few songs well-known by multiple names are entered under each name. Many are known by multiple names, by first line or by repeated phrases. If you do not find what you want on the first try, think outside the box, as it may be here under a variant of the name you know.
Scroll to your heart's content.
Cabbage Leaf Rag (TA)
Cactus Rag (TA)
Caissons Go Rolling (1908)
Cakewalk in the Sky (TA)
Calico Rag
California (1922)
The California Brothers (1850)
California, Here I Come (1924)
Call Me Back, Pal O'Mine (1921)
Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon (1910)
Call of the South (1924)
Calton Weaver (1907)
Calvary
Camp a Little While in the Wilderness (c 1818, r. 1982)
The Camp at Hoover's Lake (?)
The Campbells Are Coming (1745)
Campbell's Retreat from Red Gap
Camp Chase
Camping on the Old Swannee (TA)
Camptown Races (1849, 1850)
Canaler's Lament (<1952 PD)
Cam-ye by Atholl (TA)
Canaday-I-O (TA)
Canadian Capers (1915)
Candy Gal
Candy Man (1905? PD)
Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight , Mister? (1925 PD)
Canned Heat Blues (1928 PD)
Cannonball (1905)
Cannonball Blues (1926 PD)
The Canny Ould Lad
Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight, Mister? (PD)
The Cannonball
Can't Yo' Hear me Callin'? (1914)
Can Ye Sew Cushions? (1803)
Can You Dance the Polka? (1882)
Cantcha Line 'Em (1932 PD)
Can't Help Cryin' Sometimes (1931 PD)
Can't You Heah Me Callin' Caroline (1914)
Can't You See I'm Lonely? (1905)
Can't You Take It Back & Exchange It for a Boy? (1911)
Cape Cod Girls (1932 PD)
Captain Ginjah
Captain Haney Blues
Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1868)
Captain Kidd (1701)
Captain Ward & the Rainbow (>1604)
Captain, Won't You Let Me Go Home
Car-Barlick Acid (TA)
Carbolic Rag
Careless Love (1850)
Carnal & the Crane (Child 55)
Carnival in Venice (1917)
Carolan's Gap
Carolina Breakdown
Carolina in the Morning (1922)
The Carolina Lady
Caroline & Her Young Sailor Bold
Carpet Rags (1903)
Carrickfergus (1927 PD)
Carrie (Marry Harry) (1909)
The Carrier Line
The Carrion Crow (1796)
Carroll County Blues
The Cartin' Wife (Child #79)
Carry Me back to Old Virginny (1878)
Cascades (1904)
Casey Jones (1909)
Castle by the Sea (Child 4, 1927)
Castle Doggy (TA)
Cataract Rag
Catharsis
Ca' the Yowes
The Cat Came Back (1893)
Catfish Blues (1941, PD)
Cat's Got the Measles, Dog's Got the Whooping Cough
A Change in the Business
Cattle Call (1966, PD?)
Cough
Cats on the Rooftops
Cattle Call (unk.,1930's)
Cattle in the Cane
Cattleman's Prayer (1885)
CC & O Blues
CC Rider (1925 PD)
Cecilia (1925)
Chain Gang Special (PD)
Champagne Charlie (1864, 1868)
Champagne Rag (TA)
Chanticleer Rag (1910)
Charlatan (1897)
Charles Guiteau (1907)
Charleston (1923)
Charleston Gals (TA)
Charley Over the Water (1903)
Charlie Brooks & Nellie Adair
Charlie, He's a Good Man (18th C)
Charlie, He's My Darling (1775)
Charlie Mopps (1973 PD)
Charlie, My Boy (1924)
Charmaine (1926)
Charming Betsy
Chatterbox Rag (1910)
Chaw Roast Beef (1859)
Cheating on Me (1925)
Cheer Up Mary (1906)
Chelsea Reach (1665)
Cherie (1921)
Cherie, I Love You (1926)
Cherish the Ladies
Cherokee Shuffle
Cherry Tree Carol (Child 54) (1768)
Chester (1778)
Chevy Chase
Chewing Gum (1915)
Chicago Blues
Chicago Breakdown (1926)
Chicago, That Toddlin' Town (1922)
C-h-i-c-k-e-n (1902)
Chicken
Chicken, Can You Roost Behind the Moon?
Chicken Can Waltz the Gravy Around (1887)
Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me (1877)
Chicken in the Bread Tray (1925 PD)
Chicken Reel (1910)
Chickens, they Are Crowing (1917)
Child in the Manger
Child of God (1973 PD)
Children, Go Where I Send Thee (1936 PD)
Children of Zion
Chili Bean (1920)
Chilly Water
Chilly Winds (1925 PD)
Chimbley Sweeper
Chime Again, Beautiful Bells
Chinatown, My Chinatown (1910)
Ching-a-ring Chaw
Chin Chin, Chinaman (1896)
Chinese Breakdown
Chinese Picnic & Oriental Dance (1914)
Ching Chong
Chinquipin (1926 PD)
Chisholm Trail (1910)
The Choice Wife
Chong, He Come from Hong Kong (1919)
Chopo (1908)
Chopsticks (1877)
Christ Child's Lullaby
Chime Again, Beautiful Bells
Chin Chin Chinaman (1896)
Chinatown, My Chinatown (1910)
Chong, He Come from Hong Kong (1919)
Chop Sticks (1877)
Chorus Jig (1849)
Christians Awake (1750)
Christine Leroy (1880s)
Christmas Day (1910)
Christmas Day in the Morning (1778)
Christmas Is Coming, the Goose Is Getting Fat (1947 PD)
Christmas on the Sea
Christmas Tree (1800s)
Church in the Wildwood (1864)
Church Street
Chrysanthemum
Cielito Nino (1919)
Cigarettes & Whiskey
Cincinatti Hornpipe (TA)
Cincinatti Shout
Cindy (1915)
Ciribiribin (1909)
City of Savannah
Claire de Lune (1905)
Clap Yo' Hands (1926)
Clarinet Marmelade (1918)
Clara Nolan's Ball (1885)
Clark Saunders (1802)
Claude Allen (>1912)
Cleanin' Up in Georgia
Clementine (1863)
Closer Walk
Clementine (1864)
Cleopha
Clerk Covill (Child 42)
Cliffs of Dooneen
Climbing Up the Golden Stairs (1884)
Climbing Up the Ladder of Love (1926)
Clinch Mountain Home
Close Your eyes (1925)
Cluck Old Hen (<1886)
Clyde's Water (TA)
Coal Black Mammy (1921)
Coal Black Rose (1827)
Coal Creek March
Coal Miner's Blues
Coal Miner's Child (1894)
Coast of High Barbaree (TA, 1670)
Coast of Peru (>1850)
The Coat & the Pants Do All the Work?
Coaxing the Piano (1922)
The Cobbler (1731)
Cobbler's Hornpipe (1701)
Cocaine (Furniture Man ) (1927 PD)
Cocaine Bill & Morphine Sue (1959 PD)
Cocaine Blues (1963 PD)
Cocaine Habit
Cocaine Rag
Cockles & Mussels (1750-1850)
Cockle Shells and Silver Bells (1714)
Coconut Dance (1920)
Cod Liver Ile (late 1800s)
Coffee Blues (1963 - PD)
Cohen on the Telephone (1914)
Cold Blows the Wind (1832)
Cold Rain & Snow
Cole Smoak (TA)
Cole Younger (1910)
Cold Frosty Morning
Cold River Line (1915)
Cold Scenes of Winter
Coleman's March
Colin's Cattle
Collier Laddie
Colonel Bogey (1916)
The Colorado Trail (1927 PD)
Colored Aristocracy (?)
Colored Major (TA)
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean (1843)
Columbus Stockade (1927)
Combination March (1896)
Combination Rag
Come After Breakfast, Bring 'Long Your Lun(1909)
Come All Ye Tender-hearted
Come All Ye Tramps & Hawkers
Come All You Fair & Tender Ladies (1906)
Come All You Virginia Girls (1841)
Come All You Young Ladies
Come Along Down Buddy (1918)
Come Along, My Mandy (1910)
Come Back, Baby
Come Back to Erin (1866)
Come Back to Sorrento (1902)
Come Bathe in that Beautiful Pool
Come By Here (Kumbaya) (1931, PD)
Come Down, Ma Evening Star (1902)
Come Haste to the Wedding
Come Home
Coming 'Round the Mountain (1924 PD)
Come, Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (1830
Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine (1910)
Come Lads and Lasses
Come, Let's Be Merry (1727)
Come Landlord, Fill that Flowing Bowl (<1830)
Come Let Us Sing (?)
Come, Love, Come (1880s)
Come On, Spark Plug (1923)
Come Out of the Kitchen, Mary Ann (1917)
Come Over & See Me Sometime
Come, Pretty Polly (1856)
Come Take a Trip in My Airship (1904)
Come Thou Almighty King (1885)
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (1758, 1885)
Come to the Mardi Gras
Come to the Moon (1919)
Come West Along the Road
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming (1855)
Come Ye Disconsolate (TA)
Coming 'Round the Mountain When She Comes (1924)
Coming Through the Rye (1796)
Common Bill (1893)
Comrades I Am Dying (1864)
Connemara Cradle Song
Coney Isle (1927 PD)
Connie's Got Connections in Connecticut?
Connie Walsh's Slide
Constant Farmer's Son (< 1845)
Constant Lovers (1826)
Constant Sorrow (1913)
Conversation with Death (1916)
Convict and the Rose
Coo Coo Bird (1769)
Cookoo's Nest
Cool Down on the Banks of Jordan
Coon from Tennessee (1950 PD)
Cooper of Fife (TA, 1803)
Copenhagen (1924)
Coplas
Cora is Gone
Corn Dodgers
Corn Rigs (1805)
Corn Rigs are Bonny
Cornshuckin' (TA)
The Cornstalk
Corn Whiskey
Corpus Christi Carol
Corrina, Corrina (1926 PD)
Cosher Bailey's Engine (1903)
Cottage By the Sea (1886)
The Cottage Door
Cotton Bells (Bolls) (TA)
Cotton Candy (PD)
Cotton-Eyed Joe (1927 PD)
Cotton Mill Colic (1926)
Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray (1909)
Country Blues
Country Club (1909)
Country Courtship (1776)
Country Gardens (c.1728)
Country Life (1976 PD)
Courting Days Waltz
Courting in the Kitchen (<1886)
Courting My Father's Gray Mare (<1825)
The Courting of Aramelee (Child #4)
Cousin Sally Brown (PD)
Coventry Carol (1591)
Covered Wagon Days (1923)
The Cowboy
Cowboy Jack
The Cowboy's Life (1915)
Cowboys' Christmas ball (1893)
Cowboy's Meditation
Cowboy's Night Song (1927, PD)
The Cowboy's Soliloquy (1885)
Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yay (1934 PD)
Cowman's Prayer (1886)
Crawdad Song (<1917)
Crazy Blues (1920)
Crazy Bone Rag (1913)
Creeping and Crawling (1907)
Creeping Jane
Creole Belle (1901)
Crimson Banner (1905)
Crinoline Days (1922)
Cripple Creek (1891)
The Crocodile (<1845)
Crooked Stovepipe
The Croppy Boy
Cross Your Heart (1926)
Cripple Creek
Croodlin' Do (1787)
Croppy Boy (1798)
Crossed Old Jordan's Stream (1899)
Crossing the Bar (w1899, m1998)
Crossroad Blues (?)
Crow Jane
Crowned Him Lord of All (1724)
Crown Him with Many Crowns
The Crow Song (1611, Child 26)
The Cruel Brother (Child 11)
The Cruel Lowland Maid
Cruel Mother (Child 20) (1776)
The Cruel Ship's Captain
Cruel War is Raging (1914)
Cruel Willie
Cruising 'Round Yarmouth
Crybaby Blues (1921)
Cryderville Jail (1934 PD)
Crying Holy
The Cry of Man (?)
Crystal Stream Waltz (PD)
Cuban Moon (1920)
La Cucharacha (<1917)
Cuckolds All in a Row (1650)
The Cuckoo
Cuckoo Bird
Cuckoo Is a Pretty Bird(1769)
Cuckoo's Nest
Cuddle Up, a Little Closer (1908)
Cum-Bac Rag
The Cumberland & the Merrimac (>1862)
Cumberland Blues
Cumberland Crew (<1865)
Cumberland Gap (1924, PD)
Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase (1922, PD)
Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich, and You (1925)
Curly Head of hair (1969 PD)
Curly Headed Woman
The Curragh of Kildare (1765)
Curse of an Aching Heart (1913)
Curtains of Night (1875)
Custer's Last Charge
Cutting Ferns
Cutty Wren (TA, 1927)
Cyclone in Darktown (TA)
Cyclone of Rye Cove (1929)
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