"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826-1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1854. Foster wrote the song with his wife Jane McDowell in mind.
"Jeanie" was a notorious beneficiary of the ASCAP boycott of 1941. During this period, most modern music could not be played by the major radio broadcasters due to a dispute over licensing fees. The broadcasters used public-domain songs during this period, and according to a 1941 article in Time magazine, "So often had BMI's Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair been played that she was widely reported to have turned grey."
Read more about Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair: Other Versions
Famous quotes containing the words brown hair, light, brown and/or hair:
“Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“Bite down
on the bitter stem of your nectared
rose, you know
the dreamy stench of death and fling
magenta shawls delicately
about your brown shoulders laughing.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Say the woman is forty-four.
Say she is five seven-and-a-half.
Say her hair is stick color.
Say her eyes are chameleon.
Would you put her in a sack and bury her,
suck her down into the dumb dirt?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)