Skip to My Lou lyrics — traditional American dance song
Skip to My Lou is a traditional song, dating back to America’s frontier period. Since musical instruments were frowned upon, the dancers had to create their own music by clapping and singing.
Couples would dance around a lone male who sang “lost my partner, what’ll I do.” At the appropriate point in the lyrics, he would ‘steal’ the partner of a dancing man as he sang “I’ll find another one prettier than you.” The displaced man would take his place in the circle.
“Lou” is apparently a corruption of “loo,” the Scottish word for love.