View source for I Want to Go Back to Michigan

[[Image:Irving Berlin Michigan1c.jpg|thumb|Cover page to the first edition printing.]]
{{Wikisource|has=full lyrics and sheet music|nocat=yes}}
{{Short description|Song by Irving Berlin}}
'''I Want to Go Back to Michigan''' is a song by [[Irving Berlin]] composed in 1914.  It was a moderate commercial success when it was first released with popular versions by [[Elida Morris]] and by [[Morton Harvey]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whitburn |first1=Joel |title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954 |date=1986 |publisher=Record Research Inc. |location=Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin |isbn=0-89820-083-0 |page=519}}</ref> Afterwards it became a staple in [[vaudeville]].  Its most famous performance was by [[Judy Garland]] in the film ''[[Easter Parade (film)|Easter Parade]]''.<ref name="loc">{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vssnde.html|title=The American Variety Stage, 1870 - 1920|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=2008-09-17}}</ref>

== Lyrics ==
The [[ballad]]'s lyrics employ imagery of an idyllic rural childhood juxtaposed against less appealing city life, which was a theme among some popular songs during this period of rapid urban growth in the [[United States]].<ref name=scheurer>{{cite book |access-date=2008-09-17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3F6A-vmcBI0C&q=%22I+Want+to+go+back+to+Michigan%22+Irving+Berlin&pg=PA108|author=Timothy E. Scheurer|title=American Popular Music: Readings from the Popular Press|publisher=Popular Press|date=1989| pages=107–110|isbn = 9780879724665}}</ref>

:''You can keep your cabarets''
:''Where they turn nights into days.''
:''I'd rather be where they go to bed at nine.''
:''I've been gone for seven weeks''
:''And I've lost my rosy cheeks.''<ref name="sheeta">{{cite web|url=http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/b/b05/b0598/b0598-2-72dpi.html|title="I Want to Go Back to Michigan" (sheet music) page 2|publisher=Watson Berlin & Snyder Co.|access-date=2008-09-17}}</ref><ref name="sheetb">{{cite web|url=http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/b/b05/b0598/b0598-3-72dpi.html|title="I Want to Go Back to Michigan" (sheet music) page 3|publisher=Watson Berlin & Snyder Co.|access-date=2008-09-17}}</ref>
{{Listen
|filename=I Want to Go Back to Michigan.ogg
|title=I Want to Go Back to Michigan
|description=Performed by [[Billy Murray (singer)|Billy Murray]] for [[Edison Records]] in 1914.}}

== Composition ==
According to Charles Hamm in a biography of Irving Berlin, the songwriter composed "I Want to Go Back to Michigan" at a time when his ambitions were aiming past [[vaudeville]] toward musical theater and he was exercising new styles.  The nostalgic reminiscence here, along with "Happy Little Country Girl" composed during the same period, was previously unknown in his work.<ref name=hamm>{{cite book |access-date=2008-09-17 |url=https://archive.org/details/irvingberlinsong0000hamm|url-access=registration |quote=I Want to go back to Michigan Irving Berlin. |author=S. Charles Hamm|title=Irving Berlin|publisher=Oxford University Press US|date=1997| pages=[https://archive.org/details/irvingberlinsong0000hamm/page/170 170]–172}}</ref>  [[Billy Murray (singer)|Billy Murray]], a popular singer during the period when the song was first composed, recorded it for [[Edison Records]] in 1914.<ref name= loc />

== Other recordings ==
* [[The Andrews Sisters]] recorded it on December 3, 1947 (Decca 9-24424) <ref>{{cite book |last1=Sforza |first1=John |title=Swing It! |date=1999 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-2136-1 |page=233}}</ref>
* [[Burl Ives]] included the song in his album ''Burl Ives Sings Irving Berlin'' (1960).<ref>{{cite web |title=Discogs.com |url=https://www.discogs.com/Burl-Ives-Burl-Ives-Sings-Irving-Berlin/master/1187801 |website=Discogs.com |access-date=March 29, 2020}}</ref>

== Movies ==
The [[Avalon Boys]] performed an a cappella version of the song in the 1931 [[Laurel & Hardy]] film ''[[Pardon Us]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Don |title=Music of the First World War |date=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-1-4408-3996-2 |page=102}}</ref>

[[Judy Garland]] performed the song in the 1948 film ''Easter Parade'', which was written around a mixture of ten older and eight newly composed Irving Berlin songs.<ref name=hollywood>{{cite book |access-date=2008-09-17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XD2xNKSN3E8C&q=Judy+Garland+I+Want+to+go+back+to+Michigan&pg=PA149|author=[[Stanley Green (historian)|Stanley Green]], Elaine Schmidt|title=Hollywood Musicals Year by Year|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|date=1999| pages=149|isbn = 9780634007651}}</ref>  Berlin's deal with MGM for the package of songs that included "I Want to Go Back to Michigan" was $500,000 plus a percentage of box office receipts, which was an unusually advantageous contract for a songwriter and amounted to twenty percent of the film's total budget of $2.5 million.<ref name=money>{{cite book |access-date=2008-09-17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZgJu3UKRfIC&q=Easter+Parade+film+best+score&pg=PA475|author=Laurence Bergreen|title=As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin|publisher=Da Capo Press|date=1996| pages=474–479|isbn = 9780786752522}}</ref>  The film won the 1948 [[Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Original Music Score|Best Musical Score]].<ref name="oscar">{{cite web|url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp;jsessionid=DA062AF82E35D352D99A87D42F36BBD9.jicama?curTime=1221973894128|title=Results page (Easter Parade)|publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]|access-date=2008-09-21}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Irving Berlin songs}}
{{Billy Murray|state=autocollapse}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:1914 songs]]
[[Category:Songs about Michigan]]
[[Category:Songs written by Irving Berlin]]