a lively song written by George M Cohan for his Broadway musical play Little Johnny Jones (1904). It became a favourite American song for Independence Day and during the world wars. The Hollywood film about Cohan’s life was also called Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). The song begins:
I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
A Yankee Doodle, do or die,
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam,
Born on the Fourth of July.