page_title: Thomas Brigham Bishop
section_title: "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me"
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Brigham Bishop / Songs / "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me"
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of the 1869 sheet music publication of "Shoo Fly," also known as "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me"
context_page_description: Thomas Brigham Bishop is best known as an American composer of popular music. Various disputed claims have been made by Bishop and others that he authored, or at least contributed to the authorship of, a number of popular 19th-century songs, including John Brown's Body, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, and Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me. Bishop later had an infamous career as a bucket shop proprietor, among other schemes.
context_section_description: According to Bishop's account, he wrote "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me" during the Civil War while assigned to command a company of black soldiers.  One of the soldiers, dismissing some remarks of his fellow soldiers, exclaimed "Shoo fly, don't bother me," which inspired Bishop to write the song.  The company, we are told, generated the line "I belong to Company G".  Yet, the song was reportedly "pirated" from Bishop and he made little money from it.  Bishop did publish a sheet music version of the song in 1869, which includes the caption, "Original Copy and Only Authorized Edition."  Other sources, however, have credited Billy Reeves (lyrics) and Frank Campbell, or Rollin Howard, with the song.  The first group to popularize the song was Bryant's Minstrels in 1869–70.
caption: Sheet music cover page for "Shoo Fly" (1869)
exif: {}