Greetings!

Pete Seeger in his 1996 album "Pete" says this about "Kisses":

"Huddie Ledbetter was at a party in Greenwich Village when he heard an Irish artist Sam Kennedy, singing an Irish song, "Drimmin Down." Leadbelly liked the tune, but he wanted to sing it his own way. Some time later, at another crowded Greenwich Village party, he took Sam Kennedy aside into the bathroom, the only quite place they could find. He said, "Sam, I'd like to sing your song, bt I'm changing it a little, and I wonder if it is OK with you." Sam was very polite. He said, "Leadbelly, it's an old, old song. Everybody's got a right to sing it the way they want to. You sing it your way; I'll sing it my way." Leadbelly changed the rhythm. Also garbled the words.

Once, I was humming through the melody as Leadbelly played it. I was intrigued by the unusual chords Leadbelly used to accopmany it. He'd played A major 7th chors, but sang it in A minor. But I couldn't remember his words. I found myself singing, "Oh-oh, kisses sweeter than wine." I knew is was a good idea for a chorus, but I wasn't skilled enough to figure what the heck to do with the rest of the song. I jotted the idea on a scrap of paper and dropped it in a file labled "song ideas 1949."

A year later, us four Weavers (Lee, Ronnie, Fred & me) found ourselves in a most unexpected situation. Thanks to the ebnthusiasm of band leader Gordon Jenkins, we'd recorded one of the songs of Leadbelly, who'd died penniless the year befor. "Goodnight Irene" sold more records than had any other pop song since WWII. Decca then wanted us to record some new songs. Lee says, "Pete, get our your folder of song ideas; let's go through them, see if there's something we can work on." I'm humming this idea and that as I leaf through scraps of paper. I come to this. Lee said, "Hold on, let me try it." Next morning he came back with about six or seven verses. As I remember we pared them down to five."

It is credited thusly: Words by Lee Hays with Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Pete Seeger, 1950. Music by Huddie Ledbetter.

BTW: Jimmie [F] Rodgers took the song to #3 in late 1957. His other hits were: Honeycomb #1 for 4 weeks in '57 Oh-Oh, I'm falling In Love Again - to #7 in '58 Secretly - to #3 in '58 Make Me A Miracle - to #16 in '58 Are You Really Mine - to #10 in '58 & 8 others in the top 40 from '59 - '67

This from "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits" by Joel Whitburn.

I don't know if the Weavers' version charted, because the book doesn't track that far back.

pax yall