Contact
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)
Artist: Roy Harvey & The North Carolina Ramblers
Author: traditional
Label: Broadway/Paramount
Year: 1927
Charlie Poole's guitarist on front.
Covers:
Carter Family [as I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes; Sara Carter confessed she knew this song from elsewhere]
Cléoma B. Falcon [great-aunt of cajun archivist Johnnie Allan as Mes Yeux Bleus for Decca; along with her husband Joe Falcon regarded as a cajun Carter Family (see also: Ma blonde est partie]
Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans [as The Great Speckled Bird; lyrics inspired by the Bible (12th Chapter, 9th verse in the Book Jeremiah); vocal: Dynamite Hatcher; the melody being published by Ralph Peer since the Carter Family's I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes, Roy Acuff got triggered to start-up his own publishing company]
Gene Autry [as The Great Speckled Bird]
Jimmie Heap & The Melody Masters [as The Wild Side Of Life; lyrics: William Warren]
Al Montgomery [answer song to The Wild Side Of Life as Did God Make Honky Tonk Angels; in the intro producer and lyricist J.D. Miller asks: "Did God make honky tonk angels?" Alice responds with: "We don't think so, listen"; released before Kitty Wells]
Kitty Wells [as It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels; first woman with a n°1 C&W]
Hank Thompson [as The Wild Side Of Life; n°1 C&W]
Burl Ives [idem]
Johnny Hicks [as No Wild Side Of Life]
Jo-El Sonnier [as Tes Yeaux Bleus]
Johnny Cash [as The Great Speckled Bird and in '68 (At Folsom Prison) as Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart]
Jerry Lee Lewis [as The Great Speckled Bird]
Tommy Quickly & The Remo Four [as Wild Side Of Life; hit UK]
Townes Van Zandt [melody in Heavenly Houseboat Blues]
Freddy Fender [as The Wild Side Of Life]
Status Quo [as Wild Side Of Life; hit UK]
Floyd Cramer [as I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes]
Rod Stewart [as Wild Side Of Life]
Waylon & Jessi [idem]
Hans Habils [as Aan Het Eind Van De Tunnel]
Blue Mountain [as I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes]
Melody to no less than six songs, Earl Johnson's In The Shadow Of The Pine (1927) and Vernon Dalhart's The Prisoner Song (1924) not even counted in (see there). Written by Guy Smith, Great Speckled Bird was first performed by Knoxville group Charlie Swain & The Black Shirts on radio. The Wild Side Of Life is written by two members of the Melody Masters (Arlie Carter/William Warren) and was first recorded by Jimmie Heap & The Melody Masters for Imperial (see also: Release Me). It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels is written by J.D. Miller, record producer from Crowley, LA and was first recorded by Alice Montgomery for Feature. As a result Miller was contracted by Acuff-Rose Publishing. Kris Kristofferson uses fragments of Wild Side Of Life in his Blessing In Disguise and The Devil To Pay (both '81) and David Allan Coe mentions all these titles at the end of his If That Ain't Country.
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)