the great speckled bird was a song written in the 1930s by guy smith. i believe that smith wrote it about jeremy and some of the verses were about john but no one knows if that's true. i think that an earlier song called on the wings of a dove might have bene written in the 1890s which means that the carter family were not the first to write their tune of 'i'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes in 1929'. i also think this song about the bird should be sung more times and more well remembered thaat the 1952 song the wild side of life is. when i look at the singers who are from britain the things they say is we like to sing that kind of music. a scottish singer from glasgow named lena martell who sings country music likes the wild side because in the interview she said that i do sing hymns but i have never heard of the song about the bird. the first time i heard the song was by roy acuff and i could not believe that that tune was made into a more memorable song and looking at the recordings of this song of the bird i could not beleve that more folk songs were set to this tune, and if you write that type of music with new words i thought that doing a chart of many songs that have been known as different titles including the great speckled bird.