While the roots of "Jimmy Crack Corn" or "Blue Tail Fly" go back to the 1840's, no one seems to have recorded it before one of my favourite media personalities, Burl Ives. He performed it on his 1940 radio show The Wayfarin' Stranger but didn't formally cut it until 1944. When the song first came to light the lyric was "gimcrack" which meant cheap and "corn" referring to whiskey. As referenced by Mr. Ives it has been said that Abraham Lincoln asked for it to be played before the Gettysburg address.

The Andrews Sisters (LaVerne, Maxine and Patty) teamed up with Burl Ives and the Vic Schoen Orchestra for the 1948 top twenty hit of "Blue Tail Fly (Traditional).

Toledo's Johnny (Pocisk aka Paris) and the Hurricanes (Johnny Paris, Dave Yorko, Paul Tesluk, Lionel Mattice and Tony Kaye) had a 1960 top twenty hit with "Beatnik Fly" (King - Mack). This is from the album "The Big Sound of Johnny and the Hurricanes".