About 20 years ago, I was working in a restaurant not far from here. I was working with a woman named Tammy, who was from somewhere in Texas, I can't remember where. She was cute, nice, and a great waitress. Well, one day I smarted off to her, not seriously, of course, I was just being funny. She said, "You smart-alec Yankee drummer, you!" I said, "Where did you get that?" She said it was just something they said back home. I asked her if she'd ever heard of Stan Freberg, and she hadn't.

In 1955, Stan Freberg recorded a parody of Mitch Miller's "Yellow Rose of Texas", that included the phrase, "you smart-alec Yankee drummer, you". As far as I'm aware, he was the one to actually coin the phrase. He was one of my dad's favorites, and I grew up listening to it, so naturally I recognized it immediately.

My question: Has anyone else ever heard this phrase used? And, did Stan Freberg actually coin it, or was it around before he used it?

Dunno about that one, but I know he coined “Keep your cotton-pickin’ hands off my black leather jacket; it’s the closest thing to skin that I got”.

My pops was a big fan, and we listened to a lot of Stan Freberg. I’d be inclined to give him credit until shown otherwise.

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Not in jail.

As far as "Yankee drummer", it was a serious insult in my Dad's home town, as it referred to the northern troops that returned after the war to run the carpetbagger government, and sell critical goods at highly inflated prices.

Anybody called you that, you'd best leave town before sunset.

The only reason I even clicked on this thread was because I recognized the phrase from Stan Freberg's "A Child's Garden of Freberg" album, which my Dad loved, and listened to quite a bit. I was a bit too young to understand & appreciate the parody aspect, but I still found the material funny. Just the other day, I was trying to remember the lines to "That's My Boy". "...but I'm sure glad he's such a lousy shot! Take a look...<bang>...missed me! That's my boy!"

I suspect that phrase was created by Freberg, though I believe the actual phrase is "smart-alecky Yankee drummer-*you*" (extra punch on "you"). That waitress may have run across one of Freberg's old fans, whom she heard repeating the phrase, but she never learned of the Freberg connection. Heck...it coulda' been my Dad!

Tim

Also standing by for the Texas Enlightment -
Until then - when I read a Texas lady heard it back home,
I was thinking when she said ‘Drummer’ it meant a traveling salesman coming down from Yankee Land
and Messing with the locals.
Think - Second Hand Lions.
But when i looked up Stan Freberg’s lyrics,
He apparently does mean Drums.
So I think it’s Freberg all the way.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I'm a Texican, never heard of that particular phrase, and am a Mitch Miller fan.

Texas is all grown up these days,,,,except for a few rural places that still have the Confederate Flag flying from their pick-up truck.Big cities here are different.
For example, Dallas proper has a high percentage of non-Caucasian, and the crime rate and welfare problems are high, and getting higher.
Most Caucasians have moved North,East, West while still commuting into work in the Downtown skyscrapers.
Only the small incorporated expensive towns like Highland Park and University Park, Lakewood,,,are still there but the real estate starts in the millions.
I sometimes drive thru my old elementary,junior high,and high school areas in HP, as I was born and raised there. Still beautiful and protected fervently by their own Police and Fire Deprtments.
Downtown Dallas is very clean and also well protected.
It received lots of tv coverage 11/2 years ago about the sniper shooting up the place and killing 4 or 5, and wounding many others.
Many big skyscrapers are now under construction, and the North area like Plano,etc.,, are now huge cities of their own and the big and beautiful new homes are all over these many small townships.
The top Corporations have their HQ's there now, and many more coming.
That area is booming!

And the Confederate flag should fly. Nothing wrong with flying a flag that is ones own heritage. It's mine as well of most anyone elses-being caucasion-hispanic and black-matters not. Others fly their one heritage flags with no shame. I don't have a Stars and bars or a Battle flag, but see no reason why one should be ashamed of having one.

Now if I see someone flying an isis flag--ill rip it down in a heartbeat.