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"Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)" (also known as In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home) is a song written by American blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, who made the first recording of the song in 1940.
Recorded by Lead Belly in 1940, "Cotton Fields" was introduced into the canon of folk music via its inclusion on the 1954 album release Odetta & Larry which comprised performances by Odetta [1] at the Tin Angel nightclub in San Francisco with instrumental and vocal accompaniment by Lawrence Mohr; this version was entitled "Old Cotton Fields at Home". The song's profile was boosted via its recording by Harry Belafonte first on his 1958 album Belafonte Sings the Blues, with a live version appearing on the 1959 concert album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. Belafonte had learned "Cotton Fields" from Odetta and been singing it in concert as early as 1955. A #13 hit in 1961 for The Highwaymen, "Cotton Fields" served as an album track for a number of C&W and folk-rock acts including Ferlin Husky (The Heart and Soul of Ferlin Husky 1963), The Delltones (Come A Little Bit Closer 1963), Buck Owens (On the Bandstand 1963), the New Christy Minstrels (Chim-Chim-Cheree 1965) and the Seekers ( Roving With The Seekers 1964). Odetta also made a new studio recording of the song for her 1963 album One Grain of Sand . The Springfields included "Cotton Fields" on a 1962 EP release; this version is featured on the CD On an Island of Dreams: The Best of the Springfields. "Cotton Fields" was also recorded by Unit 4+2 for their Concrete and Clay album (1965). A rendering in French, "L'enfant do", was recorded in 1962 by Hugues Aufray and Petula Clark.
| "Cottonfields" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Beach Boys | ||||
| from the album 20/20 | ||||
| B-side | "The Nearest Faraway Place" | |||
| Released | April 20, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | November 18–19, 1968 (album version) August 8 & 15, 1969 (single version) | |||
| Length | 2:21 (album version) 3:05 (single version) | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Huddie Ledbetter | |||
| Producer(s) | Brian Wilson and Al Jardine (album) The Beach Boys (single) | |||
| The Beach Boys singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "Cotton Fields" (The Cotton Song)" on YouTube | ||||
American rock band the Beach Boys first recorded "Cotton Fields" on November 18–19, 1968. The track (with Al Jardine on lead vocals) debuted on the group's 1969 album 20/20 . It was Jardine's idea for the band to cover the song. He explained:
I first heard [the song] in the mid-'50s. I loved Lead Belly's vocals and of course his 12-string guitar sound but it was really his heartfelt emotional lyrics written during the Great Depression that affected me. I was determined to record a new version for the Beach Boys at a time when we were going off in quite a few different musical directions. [2]
Dissatisfied with Brian Wilson's baroque pop-influenced arrangement of the song, Jardine prevailed upon the group to record a new version (inspired by the contemporaneous vogue for country rock, as exemplified by such acts as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Stone Poneys and Michael Nesmith & The First National Band) in August 1969. The re-recording featured notable session musician and longtime Nesmith collaborator Orville "Red" Rhodes on pedal steel guitar. Retitled "Cottonfields", the second iteration afforded the Beach Boys their most widespread international success while also denoting the end of the group's hit-making career in the US (although they would enjoy periodic comebacks there). "Cottonfields" would be the final Beach Boys' single released on Capitol Records – the group's label since May 1962 – and their last single released in mono.
While underperforming in the United States (peaking at #103 in Billboard ) despite a promotional appearance on the short-lived variety show Something Else, the song succeeded across the Atlantic, reaching #5 in the UK Singles Chart (and number 2 on the Melody Maker chart [3] ) and later listed as the tenth-biggest seller of the year by the New Musical Express . Outside of North America, it nearly replicated the success of the group's "Do It Again" two years before, peaking at #1 in Australia and Norway; #2 in Denmark, South Africa and Sweden; #3 in Ireland; #12 in the Netherlands; #13 in New Zealand; and #29 in West Germany. Because of this popularity, it was placed on the international release of the group's Sunflower album. The single achieved sales of over 50,000 copies in Australia, being eligible for the award of a Gold Disc. [4]
The single was initially only issued in mono, though a reprocessed stereo mix opened international issues of the Sunflower album. It was remixed into stereo for the 2000 compilation Hawthorne, CA . A further stereo remix found on the Feel Flows box set opens with Al Jardine's son trying to count off the song with the help of his father. Unlike the older stereo mix, this version recreates the reverb effect on the opening vocals.
| Chart (1970) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia ( Go-Set ) [5] | 1 |
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [6] | 1 |
| Denmark (IFPI) [7] | 2 |
| Finland (Suomen virallinen lista) [8] | 21 |
| Germany (Official German Charts) [9] | 29 |
| Ireland (IRMA) [10] | 3 |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) [11] | 12 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100) [12] | 13 |
| New Zealand ( Listener ) [13] | 13 |
| Norway (VG-lista) [14] | 1 |
| Rhodesia (Lyons Maid) [15] | 5 |
| South Africa (Springbok) [16] | 2 |
| Sweden (Kvällstoppen) [17] | 2 |
| UK Singles (OCC) [18] | 5 |
| UK Melody Maker Pop 30 [19] | 2 |
| UK New Musical Express Top 30 [20] | 3 |
| US Bubbling Under the Hot 100 ( Billboard ) [21] | 103 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 [22] | 101 |
| US Record World Top 100 [23] | 95 |
Sourced from Craig Slowinski. [24] [25]
The Beach Boys
Additional personnel
The Beach Boys
Additional personnel
| "Cotton Fields" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Creedence Clearwater Revival | |
| from the album Willy and the Poor Boys | |
| Released | 1969 |
| Recorded | 1969 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:57 |
| Songwriter(s) | Huddie Ledbetter |
Creedence Clearwater Revival included their cover of "Cotton Fields" as the third track on their 1969 album Willy and the Poor Boys . Their version hit No. 1 in Mexico in 1970.
The original lyrics, written by Lead Belly, state that the fields are "down in Louisiana, just ten miles from Texarkana". Later versions (e.g., Creedence Clearwater Revival's) say the fields are "down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana". While the twin cities of Texarkana (in Texas and in Arkansas) are about 30 miles north of the Arkansas–Louisiana border, [31] [32] [33] the larger Texarkana metropolitan area directly abuts the Arkansas-Louisiana state line.
The song has been taken up by bluegrass musicians far from actual cotton-producing regions; for example, the German skiffle band Die Rhöner Säuwäntzt describe their style as "Musik von den Baumwollfeldern der Rhön," which means "music played in the [imaginary] cotton fields of the Rhön Mountains." [34] In Spanish, the song was covered by the '60s rock and roll group Los Apson titled "Cuando Yo Era Un Jovencito" (When I Was A Young Boy). In order to keep the words sounding similar, the meaning of the song was completely changed. [35] Regional Mexican musician Ramon Ayala also covered the Spanish version of "Cottonfields" in 1989, and it became a well-known hit for years. The Finland Swedish artist Lasse Eriksson, having among other artworks a large repertoire of covers of well-known songs with completely unrelated, humorous lyrics in the Ostrobothnian dialect of the town of Närpes of Finland Swedish, wrote a cover of "Cottonfields" in this vein, i.e. a cover with completely unrelated, humorous lyrics in the Ostrobothnian dialect of the town of Närpes of Finland Swedish, published 1984 by Kåtong lav records. [36] [37]
David Lee Marks is an American guitarist who was an early member of the Beach Boys. While growing up in Hawthorne, California, Marks was a neighborhood friend of the original band members and was a frequent participant at their family get-togethers. Following his departure from the group, Marks fronted the Marksmen and performed and recorded as a session musician.
Carl Dean Wilson was an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He was their lead guitarist, the youngest sibling of bandmates Brian and Dennis, and the group's de facto leader in the early to mid-1970s. He was also the band's musical director on stage from 1965 until his death.
Sunflower is the 16th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on August 31, 1970 on Reprise Records, their first for the label. It received favorable reviews, but sold poorly, reaching number 151 on the US record charts during a four-week stay and becoming the lowest-charting Beach Boys album to that point. "Add Some Music to Your Day" was the only single that charted in the US, peaking at number 64. In the UK, the album peaked at number 29.
Alan Charles Jardine is an American musician who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist, background vocalist, and for occasionally singing lead vocals on singles such as "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), "Then I Kissed Her" (1965), "Cottonfields" (1970), and a cover of the Del-Vikings’ "Come Go with Me" (1981). His song "Lady Lynda" was also a UK top 10 hit for the group in 1978. Other Beach Boys songs that feature Jardine on lead include "I Know There's an Answer" (1966), “Vegetables" (1967), a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” (1978), and "From There to Back Again" (2012).
20/20 is the 15th studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released February 10, 1969 on Capitol Records. The LP was named for being their 20th overall release when factoring in live albums and compilations. Much of 20/20 consists of outtakes from earlier albums. It reached number 3 on UK record charts and number 68 in the U.S. Brian Wilson was absent during most of the album's recording after admitting himself into a psychiatric hospital, requiring brothers Carl and Dennis to retrieve several outtakes he had recorded years earlier. While Brian does not appear on the front cover, the inner gatefold of the original vinyl release features him alone, behind an eye examination chart.
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Ten Years of Harmony is an official double album compilation album released by the Beach Boys in 1981, and spanning their entire Brother Records-era up to that point (1970–80), including some unreleased or rare material. Although the song "Darlin'" had originally been recorded in 1967 while the group was signed to Capitol Records, the version on Ten Years of Harmony was recorded live in 1973 for the album The Beach Boys in Concert.
"Sloop John B" is a Bahamian folk song from Nassau. A transcription was published in 1916 by Richard Le Gallienne, and Carl Sandburg included a version in his The American Songbag in 1927. There have been many recordings of the song since the early 1950s, with variant titles including "I Want to Go Home" and "Wreck of the John B".
"Do You Want to Dance" is a song written by American singer Bobby Freeman and recorded by him in 1958. It reached number No. 5 on the United States Billboard Top 100 Sides pop chart, No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart, and No. 1 in Canada. Cliff Richard and the Shadows' version of the song reached No. 2 in the United Kingdom in 1962, despite being a B-side. The Beach Boys notably covered the song in 1965 for their album The Beach Boys Today!; retitled "Do You Wanna Dance?", their version reached No. 12 in the United States. A 1972 cover by Bette Midler with the original title restored reached No. 17.
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"Bluebirds over the Mountain" is a song written and recorded in 1958 by Ersel Hickey, later covered by artists such as The Beach Boys, Ritchie Valens and Robert Plant. Hickey's original recording of the song peaked at No. 75 on the Billboard Top 100 Sides on the week ending May 10, 1958, and No. 39 on the Cash Box chart. In Canada it reached No. 8. Ritchie Valens' cover version was released on his eponymous 1959 album. A 1962 recording by The Echoes hit No. 112 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles survey and was a top 20 hit on Chicago's WLS. A 1965 version by Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks reached No. 8 in Canada.
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