Skip to my Lou

This one comes straight out of the American frontier--it's a partner-swapping square dance song from around the 1840s. At a party, dancers would form a circle, and when the caller sang the verse, one dancer would “steal” someone else's partner while the odd one out waited for a turn to steal somebody else's. The word “Lou” probably comes from an old Scottish word for “love.” Even Abraham Lincoln reportedly grew up playing this game as a boy in Indiana, so this cheerful little tune has been part of American life for a very long time.