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Back Home Again in Indiana

{{Short description|1917 song}}{{Infobox song

| name = (Back Home Again in) Indiana

| cover = IndianaHomeAgainCover.jpg

| alt =

| caption = 1917 sheet music cover

| type = Composition

| published = January 1917

| genre = jazz/Dixieland

| writer = Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley

}}

"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" is a song composed by James F. Hanley with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald that was published in January 1917.

An Indiana signature

{{Listen

|filename=Back Home Again in Indiana, Homestead Trio, 1917.ogg

|title=Back Home Again in Indiana, James F. Hanley and Ballard MacDonald, 1917, Paull-Pioneer Music Corp.

|description=Performed by the Homestead Trio, published by Edison Records

|format=Ogg

}}

The tune was published as a Tin Pan Alley pop song by the New York publishing firm Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. It contains a musical quotation from an earlier Tin Pan Alley popular song, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," and used several evocative words and phrases from the earlier song's lyrics including "candlelight," "moonlight," "fields," "new-mown hay," "sycamores," and "Wabash".

Since 1946, the chorus of "Back Home Again in Indiana" has been performed during pre-race ceremonies before the Indianapolis 500. From 1947 until 2020, thousands of multicolored balloons would be released from an infield tent during the song, until the practice was halted citing environmental concerns.{{Cite news|url=https://www.indystar.com/story/news/environment/2022/04/20/indy-500-balloon-release-indianapolis-motor-speedway-paused-indefinitely/7360339001/|title=IMS pauses balloon release at Indy 500, partially due to environmental concerns|first=Sarah|last=Bowman|newspaper=The Indianapolis Star|access-date=December 2, 2024}} From 1972 to 2014, the song was performed most often by Jim Nabors. He admitted to having the song's lyrics written on his hand during his inaugural performance, and occasionally his versions altered several of the words. The vocals are supported by the Purdue All-American Marching Band. In 2014, Nabors performed the song for the final time after announcing his retirement earlier that year, saying: "You know, there's a time in life when you have to move on. I'll be 84 this year. I just figured it was time ... This is really the highlight of my year to come here. It's very sad for me, but nevertheless there's something inside of me that tells me when it's time to go."{{cite web|last1=Olson|first1=Jeff|title=Jim Nabors performs at Indianapolis 500 one last time|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/motor/indycar/2014/05/25/jim-nabors-final-back-home-again-indiana-indianapolis-500/9568787/|website=USA TODAY|access-date=31 May 2017|date=25 May 2014}}

After Nabors retired, the honor of singing the song was done on a rotating basis (which had also been the case prior to Nabors becoming the regular singer) in 2015 and 2016. A cappella group Straight No Chaser performed in 2015 and the Spring 2014 winner of The Voice Josh Kaufman accompanied by the Indianapolis Children's Choir performed in 2016. The Speedway has returned to a standard singer starting in 2017, with Jim Cornelison doing it for nine runnings as of the 2025 race.{{cite web|last1=Coggan|first1=Devan|title=Watch Straight No Chaser step into Jim Nabors' shoes, sing to kick off the Indy 500|url=http://ew.com/article/2015/05/24/straight-no-chaser-performs-indy-500/|website=EW.com|access-date=31 May 2017|date=24 May 2015}}

The song was also parodied in 1988 as "I Spent the War in Indiana". It made fun of that year's Republican Vice Presidential nominee and Indiana native Dan Quayle's military service in the Indiana National Guard during the Vietnam War, allowing him to avoid deployment to Vietnam.{{cite news |last1=Davidson|first1=Lee |url=https://www.deseret.com/1988/8/26/18776346/quayle-song-has-listeners-chiming/ |title=Quayle Song Has Listeners Chiming |date=26 August 1988 |access-date=15 October 2024 |publisher=Deseret News}}

A jazz standard

File:Indordix.jpg In 1917 it was one of the current pop tunes selected by Columbia Records to be recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, (ODJB), who released it as a 78 with "Darktown Strutters' Ball". This lively instrumental version by the ODJB was one of the earliest jazz records issued and sold well. The tune became a jazz standard. For years, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars would open every public performance with the number.

Its chord changes undergird the Charlie Parker/Miles Davis composition "Donna Lee", one of jazz's best known contrafacts, a composition that lays a new melody over an existing harmonic structure. Lesser known contrafacts of "Indiana" include Fats Navarro's "Ice Freezes Red"Navarro, Fats. [http://pktrumpet.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/42_fats_navarro_solos_transcriptions.pdf "Ice Freezes Red"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224105540/http://pktrumpet.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/42_fats_navarro_solos_transcriptions.pdf |date=2013-12-24 }} transcribed by Peter Kenagy. Page 12. 2012. Accessed December 22, 2013. and Lennie Tristano's "Ju-Ju".Friedenn, Marv. Sermon on the Flats: The Egalitarian Alternative to Fortune Worship. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0zy1KC8EcCQC&q=lennie+tristano+juju+indiana%2C&pg=PA108 "Sermon on the Flats"] Los Angeles, California, psst Press. Page 108. 2006.

In 1934, Joe Young, Jean Schwartz, and Joe Ager wrote "In a Little Red Barn (On a Farm Down in Indiana)", which not only incorporated all the same key words and phrases above, but whose chorus had the same harmonic structure as "Indiana". In this respect it was a contrafact of the latter.

Cover versions

See also

References

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External links

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Category:Songs with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald

Category:1917 songs

Category:1910s jazz standards

Category:Louis Armstrong songs

Category:Songs written by James F. Hanley

Category:Indianapolis 500

Category:Songs about Indiana