“Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents” is a comic old-time string-band number from the early years of country recording. It is a traditional piece — no author can be assigned to it — and like much of the old-time repertoire it joins a brisk dance tune to a string of light, nonsense-tinged verses.
The song reached records through the Binkley Brothers’ Dixie Clodhoppers, a Nashville old-time band built around the brothers Amos and Gale Binkley. They were among the first acts to record commercially in Nashville and were regulars on the early Grand Ole Opry; their version was cut in the late 1920s and issued on Victor.
The title’s mock-serious demand — a singer wanting his fifteen cents returned — is typical of the playful, throwaway humor of old-time party songs. The piece has stayed alive among old-time and bluegrass musicians as a lighthearted change of pace; the version heard here is by Doc Watson and David Grisman, recorded live in 1997.
