As Mudcat's self-appointed official Bill Clifton fan, I would like to pass on a little information about the "other" song about Springhill...the words quoted are from Bill Clifton...

"I was just overcome with the news that after eight days they had pulled seven people alive out of that mine...the first words of one of the miners to the rescuers were 'give me some water and I'll sing you a song'. His name was Maurice Ruddick and I thought, 'Good Lord, of all the things to say, that's amazing'. So I phoned him at his hospital bed in Nova Scotia and asked him if he had a song. He said 'I can write one'.

The actual song includes little of the text Ruddick sent to Clifton, but it does have the line about "give some water...". The authors are Paul Clayton, Sonny Pembroke, Bill Clifton, and Maurice Ruddick. The latter's share was largely symbolic, with proceeds going to Miner's Relief Fund in Springhill, Nova Scotia. As Clifton says, "There never was much in the way of royalties though".

The recording was done in November, 1958 and came out just weeks after the incident happened. It came out on Kapp records and was their first foray into country music.