I sang this lullaby to my children in the 1990s. It must be wonderful for you to remember him singing it. I hope having these additional words helps.

There's a whippoorwill sweetly singing in the pale moonlight,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill.
And he's singing a song that makes me long for home tonight,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill.

He's singing 'bout the honeysuckle 'round the cabin door.
It seems he's saying, someone's praying, I'll come back once more.

There's a whippoorwill sweetly singing in the pale moonlight,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill.


I've been looking for this song, too. I heard it when I was a teen around 1968/1970, just playing through my father's stack of old 78s. My father was born in 1927 and he probably bought these records when he was a teenager in the early 1940s. Maybe it was recorded around then. We tossed the 78s years ago. :(

Another song in that stack of 78s was:

"They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree"

Well they cut down the old pine tree,
And they hauled it away to the mill.
They'll be no coffin of pine,
For that sweetheart of mine
Since they cut down the old pine tree.

But she's not alone in her grave tonight
For there my heart will always be.
Though we drifted apart,
still they cut down my heart
When they cut down the old pine tree.

Do you know that one?