[Alternately: “Who’s Dat a Knockin’ At De Door,” “Who’s Dat Knocking at De Door,” “Whose That Knocking at the Door, “Who’s That Knocking at the Door”]

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Mahar suggests the song was patterned after Anthony F. Winnemore’s (c.1816-1851) “Stop Dat Knocking,” first published in 1843 (22). While both Winnemore’s and Christy’s versions rely upon an exchange between interlocutors during the chorus, versions of “Who’s Dat Knocking at the Door” differ from their source material in that there is variation in every subsequent chorus, specifically, with the identity of a John attempting to gain entry to a brothel and the insults the brother keeper directs at him. This type of variation appears to be unique within this canon of song. Otherwise, there is a degree of variation in the verses across the editions surveyed, generally with regard to the John’s intentions or his success at gaining admittance.

The song appears to have been fairly popular on both sides of the Atlantic during the period in question, but not as popular as its source if the frequency of its appearance in playbills can be taken as evidence. The degree to which the popularity of the song endured is extremely difficult to determine. With a proliferation of songs with some variation of “knocking at the door” that seem to bear no direct relationship to Christy’s adaptation or Winnemore’s original, the phrase seems to have become more of a trope than a reference to source material. The only known transmission of material similar to Christy’s appears to be in a jump-rope rhyme: “Vote, vote, vote for – Whose that knocking at the door? For if it’s – let her in and punch her in the chin And we won’t vote for – anymore 44, shut the door, say no more.”

Select Recording History:

“Who’s Dat a Knockin’ At De Door.” Timothy Twiss. The Grapevine Twist. Timothy Twiss, 2008.

“Who’s That Knocking At the Door”. Bob Carlin. Mr. Spaceman. Merimac, 1992.

Works Cited:

Mahar, William J. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Chicago: Illinois UP, 1999.

Mark Turner