Artist: Lilly Chapel School children in York, Alabama
Author: traditional
Label: Folkways
Year: 1953
Old children's game song. Copyrighted in '61 by Chandler & Kaufman and published in Sing Out! Collected by Harold Courtlander. Previously collected by Ruby Pickens Tartt in the thirties and mentioned in Thomas W. Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes as Green Oak Tree, Rocky O (1922). First released on lp Negro Folk Music Of Alabama, Vol. 6 - Ring Game Songs And Others, also on cd Ring Games: Line Games and Play Party Songs of Alabama. Found its way in New York folk circles where Dave Van Ronk was the first to record it.
Covers:
Dave Van Ronk [for Prestige/Folklore; introduced it at Riverside Church, NY in '61]
Karen Dalton [as Green Rocky Road]
Paul Clayton [idem]
Goldcoast Singers [as Hooka Tooka]
Judy Henske [idem]
Chubby Checker [idem]
Peter, Paul & Mary [as Rocky Road]
Len Chandler ['author' on live lp A-Rootin-Tootin-Hootenanny; wrote Beans In My Ear (see there)]
Terry Callier [as Promenade In Green]
Highwaymen [as Green Rocky Road]
Fred Neil [idem; claims authorship]
Tim Hardin [idem on Tim Hardin 1]
Rick Nelson [as Promenade In Green]
Arlo Guthrie [as Motorcycle Song]
Kate & Anna McGarrigle [with Emmylou Harris and Loudon Wainwright on The McGarrigle Hour]
Oscar Isaac [in film Inside Llewyn Davis]
Van Morrison [as Green Rocky Road, 9 minute version]
See also: Loop De Loo.
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)