Known by most as “Back Home Again in Indiana,” the name of the song is simply “Indiana.” It was composed by Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley. MacDonald was from Portland, Ore., but Hanley was born in Rensselaer, Ind.
“Indiana” was released in 1917 as a Tin Pan Alley selection and it was one of the pop tunes selected by Columbia Records that was recorded by the original Dixieland Jazz Band.
There are reports the song was played by a trackside brass band late in the 1919 Indy 500 as Hoosier driver Howdy Wilcox was en route to winning.
Opera singer James Melton started the tradition of singing the song as part of the Indy 500 pre-race festivities in 1946 — the first year Tony Hulman owned the track.
Melton was also a collector of classic cars and he supplied several cars that were used in a race-morning lap of classic cars in 1946. About 45 minutes before the start of the race he sang “Indiana” over the public-address system accompanied by the Purdue University Band.
Everyone loved it and he was invited back to sing it again in 1947. One year after that, in 1948, the song was placed in its current slot in the order of the day, just prior to the firing of the engines.
Mel Tormé, Vic Damone, Dinah Shore, Ed Ames, Peter Marshall, Dennis Morgan and Johnny Desmond were some of those who handled the singing duties, but Jim Nabors made it his own. He’s sung it 36 times, missing only a few years from 1972 through 2014, when he sang for the final time at IMS.
Nabors, a baritone, said that first race-day morning he didn’t even know that was the song he would be asked to sing, but the actor most famous for his role as Gomer Pyle rose to the occasion and delivered a rendition that was so outstanding that it became one of the most popular Indy 500 traditions.
In recent years, Jim Cornelison has become a fan favorite for his rendition of the traditional song of the Indy 500.
Peter DePaolo, the 1925 Indy 500 winner, was the person who preceded Nabors, and the only driver to sing it.