I own the song "Goodnight Irene" by many of my favorite singers - including Leadbelly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Moon Mullican, Jim Reeves, Ernest Tubb with Red Foley, etc. Of all these versions I know, the Moon Mullican version is very different. Gone from this are the verses "Sometimes I live in the country" and "stop your rambling, stop gambling". Instead, there are verses like "I loved you Irene for years, each goodnight leaves me in tears" and "I'll never love another, nobody else but you".

I know that neither Leadbelly or Moon originated the song but what I am not sure about is: Are Moon's lyrics from the turn of the century folk song [which I don't own] or are they Moon's own lyrics or are they off of an obscure Leadbelly version [Moon was a blues singer as much as a country singer and knew lots of obscure black music as he was friends with a lot of black musicians].