Rise an’ Shine
Bob Nolan
Original copyright: March 30, 1940
Photo courtesy of the Roy Rogers Family Trust and John Fullerton
Why was I born a cowboy?
Why did it happen to me?
I work all day and I work all night,
I got misery!
Now, for instance, take the grizzly bear…
He don’t do a doggone thing.
He goes to bed in the fall of the year
And he don’t wake up till spring.
Come on, you lazy cowboy,
Rise and shine!
Another day, a dollar’s pay
And everything looks fine.
There’s work to do a plenty, too,
Rise and shine.
So get out of the hay and welcome the day,
Rise and shine!
Over on the hill the sun is shinin’ with a twinkle in his eye.
Over on the hill the cattle’s grazin’.
The dogies cry for you and I.
Come on, you lazy cowboy,
Rise and shine.
If you want to be fed, get out of that bed,
Rise and shine!
ABOUT THIS SONG
Many's the child was roused in the morning by this lively song over the years but, for some inexplicable reason, it was never commercially recorded although the Sons of the Pioneers used it in their early radio transcriptions.
Bob apparently used it in the 1939 Columbia film Texas Stampede when Tim Spencer had left the Sons of the Pioneers and Bob had the full responsibility of every song in the Columbia movies for about a year. The films were produced so close together that Bob said he had 4 or 5 songs in progress all at the same time.
“Rise an’ Shine” was a perfect vehicle for that "Pioneer of Comedy", Pat Brady.
SHEET MUSIC
It was registered for copyright on March 30, 1940, and the sheet music was included in Bob Nolan’s Folio of Original Cowboy Classics No. 2, © 1940 by American Music, Inc.
RECORDINGS
SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS
Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, transcription (064053)
Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 43, 96, 148, and 253