Popular Songs in American History
















Welcome to Lesley Nelson (aka the Contemplator)'s
Popular Songs In American History Website.

American Folk and Traditional Music with Lyrics, Music Files, Tune Information
and History behind the folksongs and ballads. With folksongs arranged by time period.


Play Background Music Over the Hills and Far Away
Lesley Nelson



I am in the process of a long overdue update of these pages. The music on all of the pages now plays.
Updated pages (noted with an asterix) have a control panel. If you right click on the control panel you can loop or download the music.
Other pages have a link to play/download the music. The music will open in a separate window to play where you can also download the music.


Welcome to Popular Songs in American History. These tunes were not all written by Americans, but are songs that were known in America. Most songs of the Colonial and Revoltionary Era were songs that originated in England, Scotland and Ireland and immigrated with their people.

  • The dates indicated are, of course, not perfect. I have put them in APPROXIMATE/BEST GUESS date order based on information available at the time the file was uploaded to the site. A few tunes are listed more than once to make clear they were popular in several eras.

  • If you are looking for a particular tune, the fastest way to find it is to use the Search Engine. The search engine covers the entire site so it will find more than just American songs.