Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 17 - 05:09 AM

use the English "translate" clickie -

"Don't go, Hryts"

don't go, Hryts', to the vechornytsi*
because there are girls-witches

she dug potion on sunday
then she rinsed it on monday
she boiled it on tuesday
she poisoned on wednesday
and Hryts' died on thirsday
was buried on friday

and on saturday mother was beating her daughter
"oh why did you poison Hryts', why did you, rotter?"

oh mother, don't pity that dunce
for what does he love two girls at once?

let him to be nor mine nor hers
let him to lie down to earth

that's why i made such to you
so my mom beat me for you

so the requital cathes the scabs
house of oak made of four slabs


reminiscent of Solomon Grundy
There is a fair amount of rhyming in English which wouldn't come from Goggle IMNSHO.

*Vechornytsi - party with music, song, jokes and rituals! A shindig.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 17 - 04:35 AM

?? ?? ????, ????? (Oj ne khody Hrytsju) :(

if you read Ukranian - there may be links that help - best of luck - DtG

Theresa Sokyrka and Zirka - singing

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 23 Nov 17 - 04:06 AM

Lighter said: "What, no mention of "'Tom Dooley'?"

Perhaps this will help.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 17 - 03:45 AM

about 30 years ago I went to a folk meeting in Toronto and someone had songs typed on sheets and I looked at a few. I mentioned "wasn't this song written by Tom Paxton and that song by Ralph McTell?" - about half of them I could attribute. The owner just shrugged and the assemblage looked disinterested.

My point? if it is as Old as Grandfather it is so old it it is old (ie sort of Folk). And if it is almost as old it is good enough to call it Folk. If it is in the charts it is Pop.
A sweeping generalisation that has it roots in what can be seen around.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Nov 17 - 01:00 PM

Just resurrecting this to ask a question - Does anyone have a link to the original tune "Oj ne khody Hrytsju"? I have just bought the music for "Yes, my darling daughter" off a web site and it is great but I wouldn't mind a comparison.

Going back to "Carnival is over"/"Stenka Rasin" I tried to learn the original, which is in 3/4 time, but the Seekers 4/4 version is ingrained and I found it too difficult!

DtG

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 09:13 AM

"Yes my darling daughter" is based on a Ukrainian folk-song "Oj ne khody Hrytsju"

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 09:09 AM

...shouldn't have forgotten it was The Seekers that is!

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 09:05 AM

I did indeed, Dave! I had forgotten that and shouldn't really seeing as Judith Durham is one of my all time favourite singers!

Anyone mentioned "Only fools rush in" being Plaisir d'amour?

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 08:56 AM

I know it is bit Off topic but I will mention that Laura Smith wrote a grand song called "I'm A Beauty". I have always enjoyed her music.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 08:44 AM

No one seems to have mentioned Tom Jones singing of 'The Green Green Grass of Home' which is a re-write of 'Spancil Hill'.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST, DTM
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 08:40 AM

"My Bonnie Lies Over The Sea"
Yeh, that's a great song by Laura Smith, HiLo. I also liked her song A Four Letter Word. I remember reading that her influences were Paul Simon, Dylan & Dick Gaughan.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 08:26 AM

Laura Smith singing " My Bonnie Lies Over The Sea" was hit in the early 2000's.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 07:24 AM

From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Dec 06 - 06:54 PM
"Yellow Bird," the Mills Brothers and "Don't Ever Love Me," Harry Belafonte to a French Haitian melody, "Couchoune". I know that is not the spelling of the French title, but it is something like that."

Looks like I've got the zombie reply prize by one day over Manitas (for now) but:

1.
"Colby" (1889) or "Kolbi" in patois, is from Martinique.
The lyric is about American circus aeronaut-vaudevillian Prof. C.E. Colby (1868-1913) believe it or don't. The story has nothing to do with "Choucoune." But it is the same melody/arraignment Luboff and the Bergmans used for "Yellow Bird" (1957) and charted by the Mills Brothers (1958.) Five instrumentals charted on LPs in 1961-62.


2.
"Choucoune" (c.1893) is from Haïti.
It's one 'n' in the kreyòl ayisyen. Girl doesn't love boy anymore "based on actual events" as they say, but a political allegory at it's core. There are a bunch of oral tradition recordings but no sheet music, no physical record of the original. Jamaican ex-pat Sam Patterson published it in 1957 as "Choucounne" in french créole. The English covers (not translations) were "Don't Ever Love Me" (1957) by Attaway-Belafonte-Burgie and "She Never Loved Me" (1959) by Bud & Travis. No charts.

Two songs. You can't sing one whole to the music of the other. Joe, sooner or later I'll have a go at the "Yellow Bird" thread I guess.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:22 AM

I@@ve only skimmed the thread but have not spotted Day Trip to Bangor in the mix. Actually, I think they wrote it (renaming Rhyl to Bangor on the way) but it still has a sort of folky or perhaps music hall sound to it.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:12 AM

27 Jul 12 - 02:30 PM
Phil Harris with "The Thing." Late 1950 it hit No. 1 on the charts.
The tune is a dead ringer for "The Lincolnshire Poacher."
Don Firth
.,,.
Slowburn reply

Indeed; and the 'boom boom boom' chorus derives from "The Farm Servant" -- see my youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/mgmyer

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: eftifino
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:05 AM

What about Boney M's 'By the rivers of Babylon'?

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Janet
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 06:09 PM

I was about 11 or 12 years old and listened to all the "pop" stations in Los Angeles, KFWB, KRLA, KHJ in the mid-1960's. I first became familiar with Joan Baez at that time after hearing her sing,
"There But for Fortune" which was played on all the pop stations.
I'd be listening to these stations play all the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Jan & Dean, etc.
I was just a kid loving all the pop music and then heard this beautiful voice - and I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!
These were all AM stations - not FM in those days.
So it was "THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE" being sung by Joan Baez on all these pop stations. (of course I didn't know who Phil Ochs was at the time - the writer of the song) and these stations did not play anything by Phil Ochs. From that day onwards when I heard Joan Baez for the very first time on the pop radio stations in Los Angeles - I was a fan forever and have just about every album of hers.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 03:37 PM

"for 'Teddy Bear' see e.g. Newman White's 1928 book"

And also "Be My Kid Blues" by Elizabeth Johnson, but the Newman White version is closer to the song Leiber and Stoller provided to Elvis. (Perhaps Leiber had read Newman White.)

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 01:45 PM

A bit late now but I thought Jig a Jig had Drowsey Maggie and Jenny's Chickens as well.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: oggie
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 12:39 PM

Des O'Connor - One, two, three O'Leary started life as a scottish kids' song. The Singing Kettle recorded the trad version.

Steve

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 08:50 AM

About 9 years ago, Dave the Gnome correctly pointed out that the tune of "The Carnival is Over" is almost entirely taken from the Russian folk song "Stenka Razin", but incorrectly and unforgivably attributed the hit to the New Seekers. It was of course The Seekers, a vastly superior group. The New Seekers reworked Coca Cola ads. I think Tom Springfield did fess up as to where the tune came from, although sheet music you can download (both the Seekers version and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) still says "Words and Music by Tom Springfield".

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 06:09 PM

"Teddy Bear" by Elvis Presley and "Keep A Knockin'" by Little Richard were both top ten pop hits in 1957, and were both based on pre-1920 black folk songs (for "Teddy Bear" see e.g. Newman White's 1928 book, and for "Knockin'" see H. Odum).

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 05:37 AM

"unprecedented for a trad tune to chart" Unusual but not unprecedented! One other example which springs to mind straight away is Portsmouth by Mike Oldfield

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 06:43 AM

Like many threads started by Joe, often years ago, this one makes interesting reading. "A Guy Is a Guy" is the very rare case that almost unchanged old lyrics appeared as if freshly written (- melodies are much easier to adapt). The adaptation here was heavy bowdlerization, but nevertheless the song was perceived as risqué in the sense of progressive relaxation of taboos in the USA. I do not see anything else like this in the above lists, among those songs that I know at all.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 04:38 AM

Just checked it out, Jig A Jig reached No.7 in the charts in 1971, it's on youTube

Dave H

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 04:25 AM

British band ' East of Eden ' had a top ten hit with the traditional reel 'The Ashplant ' renamed as ' Jig a Jig ' in the 80s I think, unprecedented for a trad tune to chart.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 04:54 PM

but what is folk?
:-)

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 04:46 PM

> From: oldhippie
>
> And didn't "Wimoweh" become "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"?

And wasn't that a sordid tale of greed, and plagiaristic and racial exploitation?!
Rian Malan's story for Rolling Stone Magazine

> From: Richie
>
> Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded a rock and roll instrumental version In 1959 of the song entitled "Red River Rock" which became a hit in both the U.S. (#5) and in the UK (#3).

Are you referring to A:Rocking Goose / B:On Top Of Old Smokey - AIR, trad tunes played on a kazoo or similar?

> From: Genie
>
> A folk song that Ewan McColl wrote for Peggy Seeger to sing, "The First Time Ever ...

... I Saw Your Face" (to state its full title). According to legend, the remarkable thing about that song was that it was written during a transatlantic phone call between MacColl & Seeger. It's been covered not just by Roberta Flack but countless other pop stars, such as Celine Dione.

Also:

The Shadows - Quatermasster's Stores, originally Quartermaster's Stores.

East Of Eden - Jig-A-Jig

ELP - ISTR various versions of classical pieces, though I'm not sure any were actually hits.

Second City Sound - Tchaikovsky One - Theme from Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto popped-up in the 60s

Waldo de los Rios - Mozart40 - Mozart's 40th symphony popped-up in the 60s and since used as a sport TV theme.

John Denver - Annie's Song - Theme from Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony

60s comic song 'Hello Mother, Hello Father' and Walt Disney's Fantasia (scene that begins with ostriches as ballet dancers) both used a well-known classical tune (Amilcare Ponchielli - La Gioconda - Dance Of The Hours).

Many more pop plagiarisms of classical here:
Pop meets the Classics

Surely someone, somewhere must have had a chart hit with John Henry?

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 02:30 PM

Phil Harris with "The Thing." Late 1950 it hit No. 1 on the charts.

The tune is a dead ringer for "The Lincolnshire Poacher."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 01:49 PM

A song that I remember called The Unfortunate Rake has appeared on a CD of 20 songs to the tune of The Unfortunate Rake, but one song did not appear. I also think that a similar CD featuring all the songs that used the O Sole Mio tune would be a good idea. Does anyone know of such a CD, or range of CDs along these lines?

Subject: Lyr Add: DANCE WITH A DOLLY (WITH A HOLE IN HER...
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:53 PM

Here is the 40s song derived from Buffalo Gals
~ see note at end:

DANCE WITH A DOLLY (WITH A HOLE IN HER STOCKING) (Terry Shand / Jimmy Eaton / Mickey Leader) Russ Morgan & His Orch. (vocal: Al Jennings) - 1944; Evelyn Knight (with Camarata's Orch.) - 1944; Tony Pastor & His Orch. (vocal: Tony Pastor) - 1944; The Olympics (Titled "Dance By The Light Of The Moon") - 1961

As I was walkin' down the street
Down the street, down the street
I met somebody who was mighty sweet
Mighty fair to see
I asked her would she like to have a talk
Have a talk, make some talk
All the fellows standin' on the walk
Wishin' they were me

Mama, Mama, let me dress up tonight
Dress up tonight, dress up tonight
I've got a secret, gonna 'fess up tonight
Gonna dance by the light of the moon

Gonna dance with a dolly with a hole in her stockin'
While our knees keep a-knockin' and our toes keep a-rockin'
Dance with a dolly with a hole in her stockin'
Dance by the light of the moon

Mama, Mama, put the cat out tonight
Cat out tonight, cat out tonight
Worked all day, I'm gonna scat out tonight
And I won't be home until dawn

Gonna dance with a dolly with a hole in her stockin'
While our knees keep a-knockin' and our toes keep a-rockin'
Dance with a dolly with a hole in her stockin'
Dance by the light of the moon

Gonna dance by the light of the moon
Dance by the light of the moon
By the light of the moon

···TRIVIA: This song was adapted from the song "Buffalo Gals", which itself was adapted from an 1844 minstrel song called "Lubly Fan"···.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: PHJim
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:43 PM

Did anyone mention Roberta Flack's cover of Ewan MacColl's love song to Peggy Seeger "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

I guess the fact that it was written by a folkie doesn't really make it a folk song and I don't blame Mr. Offer for avoiding the "definition of folk song" debate.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: PHJim
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:39 PM

It seems I can recall that a pop group had a hit with a cover of Sylvia Tyson's first song, You Were On My Mind. I think they were called "We 5" or "We 3" or something like that.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Genie
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 02:28 PM

And "Buffalo Gals" was a pop (big band?) hit in the '40s too.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Genie
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 02:15 PM

A folk song that Ewan McColl wrote for Peggy Seeger to sing, "The First Time Ever," was changed a bit (the timing and the melody of the first line anyway) for Roberta Flack's pop/soul version - which has pretty much become the standard.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Genie
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 02:09 PM

Point of setting the record straight:
(Ghost) Riders In The Sky shares ONLY the first two melody lines of the verse (an none of the chorus) with "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"/"Johnny, I hardly knew You."

The rest of (Ghost) Riders is quite different, not just in rhythm, tempo, etc., but in melody as well.

I'd add that while "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" may be derivative of "Plaisir D'Amour," the tunes are hardly identical. (I'm not even sure you can use the same chord pattern for both.) Not to mention that ICHFILWY has a bridge, with its own melody, that has no relationship to Plaisir D'Amour.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Genie
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 01:51 PM

The Greek (and/or Turkish) Misirlou (Miserlou) became a big pop hit in the US, with English lyrics

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 12:41 PM

The Silencer's version of Wild Mountain Thyme was well known in Scotland because it was used in a TV advert. It didn't enter the UK charts though. They've only had 3 minor singles hits. Painted Moon got to 57 in 1988, Scottish Rain to 71 in 1989 and I Can Feel It to number 62 in 1903

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 12:21 PM

"Those Were the Days" by Mary Hopkin was always one of my favourites. The song was credited to Gene Raskin, who put English lyrics to the Russian song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu"

Just listening to another oldie here now, "Friday on My Mind" a great song by the Australian group The Easybeats. George Young and Harry Vanda wrote it.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 12:13 PM

If a song is a good song then the hits can start right away. This thread it all about songs that made the US/British charts since the 20s. Here are some 19th century songs that were big hits with new words or a new sound. One of you folks said they remember wild mountain time and wanted to know who had a hit with this song in 1992. Don't know much about them but they were called the Silencers. There's also My Old Man's a Dustman from 1960. The tune is a Liverpool chant called the Elder Dempster line a chant that is still sung at school and camps. That tune was also called 'What Do You Think About That?' which was a minor hit in the charts in 1922 for many singers at the time and is still sung at schools and other things. The 1960 song by Donegan went to number 1 in April of that year and is more remembered for folks to sing than the other two i have mentioned. When Elvis recorded love me tender in 1956 the tune Ken Darby wrote was the tune of Oralese, an 1873 song that has been a hit in the 1930s by many singers, pop and country. Another one I remember from the many songs of pop hits that have folk tunes is the 1962 song the Lion sleeps tonight; an African folk song first recorded in 1939 by Solamen Linden and a chart hit in 1952 by the Weavers as called Wimoweh the 1962 recording by the doo wop group called The Tokens that got to number 1 in the billboard charts in the end of 1961, and AGAIN was number 1 in Britain in 1982 for Tight Fit, but i think the tune is older than the Linden version from 1939. Another song that came to my head that nobody's mentioned yet is the 1957 song 'I'm Travelling Home'; a song that was a big hit in Britain in that year for Vera Lin and is to the same tune as the Scottish song Westering Home (written by Hugh Robertson) and has an older tune from Ireland, sung in Gallic. So who ever was talking about that language saying there is only one song that had the Gallic roots then they will know that a song from 1957 by Vera Lynn called travelling home was before the song you mentioned. 'She Wears My Ring' was a hit in 1968 by Soloman King and was a big hit. The tune is the same tune as 'The Swallow' and in 1951 was also called 'When You're In Love'. Labamba is another song that Richie Valens recorded in 1959 and was revived again by a Spanish group named loslobos that got to number 1 in 1987. The 1966 hit by The Sandpipers, Guantanamera, was a folk tune that was first remembered in 1835 and can still be heard today. The song 'Michael Row The Boat Ashore' by the highwaymen is a split up of the songs roots on the 19 century and the 20th century. The first verse they sing is the only verse that was written before the 20th century. The others they sing on the song were only written in the 1950s.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 02:21 PM

Let's have a link to that, shall we? Shipbuilding that is, as sung by Robert Wyatt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh6IwFhG8G8

Reached Number 32 in May 1983.

So that's a Pop Song hitting Folk, which would made a more interesting thread altogether...

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Allan Conn
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 10:46 AM

"June Tabor's "Ashore" song "Shipbuilding" should be on the charts."

Mind that song, co-written by Elvis Costello, has already charted twice! As the original single released by Robert Wyatt then later on a Tasmin Archer EP of Costello songs!

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 06:22 AM

Can pop songs based on old children's rhymes be counted as folk? I remember 'A ha Oh No Don't Let the Rain Come Down', about the crooked man who found a crooked sixpence and walked a crooked mile etc. his roof had a hole in it, hence the title. The singer I don't remember but it was one of those children's classics frequently played on the radio.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 07:05 AM

"Hoots Mon by Lord Rockingham's XI in 1958? aka Cock o' The North? "

A 100 Pipers.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: saulgoldie
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 05:57 PM

Did I miss it, or did no one mention "Bottle of Wine" by Tom Paxton, which was recorded by Jimmy Gilmer And The Fireballs and played on top 40 radio.

Saul

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Alan Day
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 03:05 PM

A quick mention of "The Floral Dance" Terry Wogan
and run
Al

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 02:18 PM

June Tabor's "Ashore" song "Shipbuilding" should be on the charts.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 02:10 PM

Thank you Spleen C. Simple minds video made me tingle.
In the right place and time I could wallow in that. I had no idea, we lead such blinkered lives if we are not careful.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Richard from Liverpool
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 01:36 PM

Moby was referred to earlier in this thread (back in 2006); in fact a lot of his album "Play" features samples of folk music.

As Azizi notes, Honey samples Bessie Jones singing "Sometimes"
Natural Blues samples Vera Hall singing "Trouble So Hard"
Run On is the song also known as "God's Gonna Cut You Down", and samples Bill Landford and the Landfordaires.

Subject: RE: Folk Songs That Hit the Charts as Pop Songs
From: Richard from Liverpool
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 01:19 PM

Nick Cave and PJ Harvey recorded a version of Henry Lee (which is a form of Child #68, Young Hunting); it got to a respectable position in the charts, I think. Certainly the album it was on ("Murder Ballads") was a success in the UK charts.