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"Mockin' Bird Hill" | ||||
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Single by Patti Page | ||||
from the album Romance on the Range | ||||
B-side | "I Love You Because" | |||
Released | 1951 | |||
Recorded | 1950 | |||
Genre | Traditional pop | |||
Length | 2:57 | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Composer(s) | Calle Jularbo | |||
Lyricist(s) | George Vaughn Horton | |||
Patti Page singles chronology | ||||
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"Mockin' Bird Hill" is a song written in 3/4 time by Calle Jularbo, with lyrics by George Vaughn Horton. It is perhaps best known through recordings by Patti Page, Horton's own Pinetoppers, and the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, or by Donna Fargo's 1977 version, but many other artists have also recorded the song. [1]
The music of "Mockin' Bird Hill" is based closely on a Swedish waltz called "Livet i Finnskogarna" ("Life in the Finn Woods"), recorded by Calle Jularbo in 1915, which enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. It also has close roots to another old Scandinavian waltz - a gammaldans called "Norska bondvals," or "Norwegian farmer's waltz." The first recording of the song was made by the Pinetoppers a group consisting of George Vaughn Horton and his brother Roy Horton plus three other men: this recording, which featured a female duo billed as the Beaver Valley Sweethearts, [2] was issued on Coral Records in October 1950. The first recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" by an established act was made by Les Paul and Mary Ford, released as Capitol 1373 on January 29, 1951.
Patti Page soon recorded the song herself, believing that record buyers assumed that the Paul/Ford single was her own new release. Page first learned of "Mockin' Bird Hill" while at Midway Airport: having just completed a Chicago nightclub engagement she was awaiting a flight to New York City to stopover before proceeding to Florida to open at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach the next evening. Page received a phone call at Midway from Mercury Records a&r man Art Talmadge. At his request Page skipped her scheduled flight to allow Talmadge to reach Midway with a portable turntable, to play Page the Paul/Ford single, which Talmadge suggested Page record once she reached New York City. Page was reluctant to make a recording without the participation of her regular conductor, Jack Rael, who awaited Page in Florida; however, Talmadge had already cleared Page's recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" with Rael and had booked studio time and musicians for Page to make the recording. Page recalled: "They had a limo at the airport [in New York City], took me to Bob Fine's studio. I cut just that one song. I was very happy with it and couldn't wait for Jack to hear it. He said 'This is really very good.' He called Art, and Art said 'I'm glad you like it, Jack, because we've already shipped 200,000 records." [3]
The Page recording, made on January 17, 1951, was issued by Mercury Records as catalog number 5595, and first reached the Billboard pop music chart on February 24, 1951, lasting 22 weeks and peaking at number 2. [4] At the same time Mercury released a recording, catalog number 5552 by Tiny Hill and the Hillsiders.
The Les Paul/Mary Ford recording was issued by Capitol Records as catalog number 1373, and also reached the number 2 spot on Billboard.
On the Cash Box best-selling record charts in which all recordings of a given song were combined, the song entered the chart on March 3, 1951; reached number 1 on April 21, 1951; and remained there through to the May 12, 1951, chart. It returned to the number 1 position on May 26.
Big Band orchestra leader Russ Morgan recorded the song in 1951 featuring the Gay Sisters on backing vocals. Slim Whitman also recorded two versions of the song.
"Mockingbird Hill" is also mentioned in "Spanish Bombs", a song by The Clash.
Clara Ann Fowler, better known by her stage name Patti Page, was an American singer. Primarily known for pop and country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female artist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records during a six-decade-long career. She was often introduced as "the Singin' Rage, Miss Patti Page". New York WNEW disc-jockey William B. Williams introduced her as "A Page in my life called Patti".
Mary Ford was an American guitarist and vocalist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios", which were number one hits on the Billboard charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.
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It's Country Time Again! is an album by American country music artists George Jones and Gene Pitney released in 1966 on the Musicor Records label.
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"Outside of Heaven" is a popular music song written by Sammy Gallop and Chester Conn. A recording by Eddie Fisher with Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra and chorus was made at Manhattan Center, New York City, on July 19, 1952, produced by Winterhalter. It was issued by RCA Victor with the catalog number 20-4953 and by EMI Records on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10362.
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Roy Horton was an American music executive known for over forty year role with Peer-Southern Music. Though based in New York City, Horton was a founding member of both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Country Music Foundation. It was while he was CMA chairman in March 1967, Horton participated in the opening of the first Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Music Row in Nashville. Horton was himself inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982.
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George Vaughn Horton was an American songwriter and performer. Usually credited as "Vaughn Horton" or "George Vaughn", he wrote or contributed to the success of a number of popular songs, including "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", "Hillbilly Fever", "Sugar-Foot Rag", "Mockin' Bird Hill" and the Christmas song "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas".