Artist: Lead Belly
Author: Huddie Ledbetter
Label: Folkways
Year: 1947
For Moses Asch, posthumously released in '51 on Leadbelly's Legacy Vol 2. The Smithsonian archive holds an acetate of a 1941 version for the WNYC radio show Folk Songs Of America. The Louisiana State Prison Farm in Angola, where he once served time, holds a private cottonfield intra muros.
Covers:
Ken Colyer's Jazzmen [as The Cotton Song; with Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber]
Petula Clark [as L'enfant do]
New Christy Minstrels [as The Cotton Picker's Song]
Esther & Abi Ofarim [also in German as Wenn ich bei dir sein kann]
Udo Jürgens [hit GER]
Beach Boys [on 20/20]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)