The formula is a descending scale: "Rich girl [does something,] Poor girl [does something else], my girl don't [do whatever the other two do, usually with comic effect.]. The twentieth century versions are possibly the result of merging a minstrel song with "Coming Round the Mountain".
In "Negro Singers' Own Book" (c 1846) there is a song about animals:
Mr. Coon he is a mighty man,
He carries a bushy tail,
He steals old massa's corn at night,
And husks it on a rail.
De mink he is a mighty thing,
He rambles in de dark;
The only ting disturbs his peace
Is my old bull dog's bark.
By 1915 this had become a comment on the fashion tastes of white women:
Well a white lady wears a hobble skirt,
A yaller gal tries to do the same,
But a poor black gal wears a Mary Jane,
But she's hobbling just the same.
Well a white lady sleeps in a feather bed,
A yaller gal tries to do the same,
But a poor black gal makes a pallet on de floor,
But she's sleeping just the same.
Notably lacking in those songs, is a chorus. Another song, "Charmin' Betsy", noted in 1908, is clearly related to "Coming Round The Mountain":
I'm comin' round the mountain, Charmin' Betsy,
I'm comin' round the mountain, 'fore I leave,
An' if I never more see you,
Take this ring, an' think of me.
An' wear this ring I give you,
An' wear it on your right han',
An' when I'm dead an' forgotten,
Don't give it to no other man.
By 1914, these two songs had become merged into a new song, sometimes called "Charmin' Betsy". A version collected in 1914, called 'White Gal, Yaller Girl, Black Gal' goes as follows:
Oh, a yaller gal, she wears a hobble skirt
Brown gal, she does the same
Black gal wears an old Mary Jane
But it's a hobble just the same
Oh, coming round the mountain, charming Betsy
Coming round the mountain, Cora Lee
If I die before I wake
Do, gals, remember me
Louise Rand Bascom, in an essay in the Journal of American Folklore Apr–June 1909, dated the song back into the 19th century. It appears to cross over between the black and white communities, united in saucy humour. Other version have "City girls, country girls, mountain girls", "White girl, yellow girl, black girl" (or the other way around).
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