Most definitely not to be confused with the off-beat Eminem recording of the same name, this uptempo number is the first song, after the Overture, in Irving Berlin's 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, and introduces one of the show's main characters. Like Annie Oakley, the real Buffalo Bill, William Frederick Cody (1843-1917) was a larger than life character from the old Wild West.

Cody earned his name by supplying the Kansas Pacific Railroad with 4,280 bison (made into steak!) in 1867-8. He had previously served in the American Civil War. In 1876, he began the first of his Wild West shows, taking his creation on tour, and in 1887 he performed before Queen Victoria in her Jubilee Year.

Annie Oakley married Frank Butler on August 23, 1876, and the couple joined Cody's show in 1885. Annie was named Watanya Cicilla by Chief Sitting Bull (ie Little Sure Shot). The overseas tours continued until 1906, but Oakley left in 1901 after being seriously injured in a train accident. Cody died at Denver in 1917 at the age of 70. >>