There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

"A Hot Time In The Old Town"
Sheet music cover (1896).
Song
Published	1896
Genre	Ragtime
Writer(s)	Composer: Theodore A. Metz Lyricist: Joe Hayden

"A Hot Time in the Old Town" is an American ragtime song, copyrighted and perhaps composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz was the band leader of the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels.

One history of the song reports "While on tour with the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels, their train arrived at a place called 'Old Town'. From their train window, [Metz] could see a group of children starting a fire, near the tracks. One of the other minstrels remarked that 'there'll be a hot time in the old town tonight'. Metz noted the remark on a scrap of paper, intending to write a march with that motif. He did indeed write the march the very next day. It was then used by the McIntyre and Heath Minstrels in their Street parades."

An alternative suggestion is that Metz first heard the tune played in about 1893 at Babe Connor's brothel, known as the Castle, in St Louis, Missouri, where it was one of the songs performed by the entertainer known as Mama Lou (or Mammy Lou), with pianist Tom Turpin. According to a 1930s newspaper report, Mama Lou's original lyrics went: "Late last night about ten o'clock / I knocked at the door and the door was locked / I peeked through the blinds, thought my baby was dead / There was another man in the folding bed....". Metz heard the tune, and had it incorporated into a minstrel show, "Tuxedo Girls" with revised lyrics, Metz copyrighting the music in his own name.

The dialect and narrative of the song imitate an African-American revival meeting.

The song was a favorite of the American military around the start of the 20th century, particularly during the Spanish–American War and the Boxer Rebellion. The tune became popular in the military after it was used as a theme by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

The song has also been tradition at the University of Wisconsin since the late 1890s when a Wisconsin-flavored arrangement was made. The University of Wisconsin Marching Band plays this arrangement regularly at sporting events, including the beginning of each period in Hockey and Basketball, and following touchdowns at football games.Prior to the adoption of "The Victors" as the University of Michigan's official fight song, it was considered to be Michigan's school song.