| "(Back Home Again in) Indiana" | |
|---|---|
 1917 sheet music cover | |
| Composition | |
| Published | January 1917 |
| Genre | jazz/Dixieland |
| Songwriters | Ballard MacDonald andJames F. Hanley |
"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" is a song composed byJames F. Hanley with lyrics byBallard MacDonald that was published in January 1917.
The tune was published as aTin Pan Alley pop song by the New York publishing firmShapiro, 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 duringpre-race ceremonies before theIndianapolis 500. From 1947 until 2020, thousands of multicolored balloons would bereleased from an infield tent during the song, until the practice was halted citing environmental concerns.[1] From 1972 to 2014, the song was performed most often byJim 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 thePurdue 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."[2]
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 groupStraight No Chaser performed in 2015 and the Spring 2014 winner ofThe VoiceJosh Kaufman accompanied by the Indianapolis Children's Choir performed in 2016. The Speedway has returned to a standard singer starting in 2017, withJim Cornelison doing it for nine runnings as of the 2025 race.[3]
The song was also parodied in 1988 as "I Spent the War in Indiana". It made fun of that year'sRepublicanVice Presidential nominee and Indiana nativeDan Quayle's military service in theIndiana National Guard during theVietnam War, allowing him to avoid deployment to Vietnam.[4]
In 1917 it was one of the current pop tunes selected byColumbia Records to be recorded by theOriginal 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 ajazz standard. For years,Louis Armstrong and his All Stars would open every public performance with the number.
Its chord changes undergird theCharlie Parker/Miles Davis composition "Donna Lee", one of jazz's best knowncontrafacts, a composition that lays a new melody over an existing harmonic structure. Lesser known contrafacts of "Indiana" includeFats Navarro's "Ice Freezes Red"[5] andLennie Tristano's "Ju-Ju".[6]
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.
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