ARTSCULTURE · HISTORICAL MARKER
Ohio's Official Rock Song
Steubenville, Ohio
· And a Favorite of the Ohio State Marching Band
Arts & Culture
3
Ohio’s official rock song had its roots in Steubenville. Dorothy Sloop was born in 1913 into a musical family; her father played piano for silent films in Steubenville and taught her to play when she was young. A graduate of the College of Steubenville, she was a jazz pianist with several all-girl groups and eventually performed at Dixie’s Bar of Music on Bourbon Street in New Orleans using the name Sloopy. Several musicians from the Cleveland area visited with her between sets and, when they returned home, used her name in a song, "My Gal Sloopy." The song underwent some changes and finally became known by one of its lines, "Hang on, Sloopy." A band director at Ohio State University wrote an arrangement of the song that became extremely popular with football fans, who roared, sang, and clapped their hands in rhythm when it was played. In 1985, "Hang on Sloopy" was adopted as Ohio’s official rock song. Dorothy Sloop finally settled on the Mississippi Coast and died in 1998. Steubenville native Anthony Violi, a music teacher and alumnus of the Ohio State Marching Band, was honored to dot the "i" at the OSU halftime show in 2018 at the age of 100!
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