Actually, "Doo-dah" is the title of a Stephen Foster biography I just read.

Foster (1826-1864) is considered America's first great song writer.

His early songs mimicked black music, words written the way slaves talked (dem for them). They were to be performed by blackface minstrels and were parodies or caricatures of the black culture. The lyrics were often offensive to us now ("killed 500 niggas").

Foster's song writing became lively with "Oh, Susanna", and "Camptown Races", probably his most famous ditties known and sung today. Words have been altered over the years. (He wrote both the music and the lyrics.)

As love, then death and depression crept into his life, his songs became more morose and "spiritual". He wrote "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Beautiful Dreamer", "My Old Kentucky Home", and "Old Folks at Home" ("Way down upon the Swanee River"). Although popular in the South, there is no evidence Foster ever traveled south of the Ohio River (barely in Kentucky, certainly not Florida!).

Stephen Foster was actually a pathetic figure. He ignored his wife and daughter. His home was Pittsburgh, but he lived, drank, and died in New York City, all but forgotten--and penniless. His songs live on. Doo-dah!!