Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Felipa
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 08:26 PM

the tune is also known as Norska Bondvals
played by Leif "Pepparn" Pettersson

What other lyrics (if any) are set to this waltz tune?

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 02:45 AM

Nice hearing from you Roy. I miss your program from WMNF. Those were the days.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 08:46 PM

It's not a fiddle tune, it's a Swedish accordion waltz, "Life in the Finnish Woods" or "Livet i Finnskogarna" by Calle Jularbo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AESyqiP8sTI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calle_Jularbo

http://www.folkwiki.se/Musik/1056

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: meself
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 08:12 PM

Here's Patty Kusturok playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Udd5pBDgM.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: meself
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 08:02 PM

The melody of Mocking Bird Hill is very similar to the well-known fiddle tune - well-known among Canadian fiddlers, anyway - : Life in the Finland Woods, clearly the one being obliquely referred to in some of the posts above. Note, though, that the tune is NOT identical; having said that, they are so close that it is very likely one was the basis of the other.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: GUEST,Roy Bodden
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 06:59 PM

I got to know Vaughn Horton in the early 1980's. We talked a lot about his music. Now this is what he told me. He said that Jimmie Rodgers was a frequent visitor when he would stop overnight at his father!s home in Pennsylvania. On one of those stopovers he gave him "Mocking Bird Hill"' which he, Jimmie Rodgers, said he would record. Jimmie was supposed to have record it on what turned out to be his last recording sessions in May, 1933. But Jimmie died before recording it. Folks made fun of his "tra la la twiddle de de" song for years. Then his group The Pinetoppers recorded, then of course, Les Paul & Mary Ford, followed by Patti Page. And the rest is history. Now I can only tell you what Vaughn told me.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 04:57 PM

Most recent: Lyr Req 28AUG09

Filter term "Mocking" and time All gets about 13 threads – including this one. Recollection is that the one linked had some discussion about origins, but I haven't probed into it.

John

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 02:00 PM

I have recently found out that Livet in Finneskogin was actually written in 1930s or so by a Swedish man..Jalpolen? or something like that. It concerned the woods where the Finns lived in Sweden. I always thought it was very old but apparently not. mg

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: GUEST,ken
Date: 13 Mar 11 - 11:23 AM

I grew up about five miles from broad top pa and we were always told mr horton wrote the song. I think he had a brother that ran a little radio station

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 13 Nov 98 - 08:24 AM

I found a little more info and some surprises concerning Vaughn Horton at:

http://www.songs.org/~nsf/horton.html

Hey Joe, how about making this clickable?

okey-dokey

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 12 Nov 98 - 01:49 PM

The 1950 recording I have is by Elton Britt & Rosie Allen. Also, my info says the song was written in 1929.

Tried to send this before, but I guess it ended up in space (or will show up eventually).

My info source has relocated to Grand Cayman, but I'll try to verify this.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Gene
Date: 11 Nov 98 - 06:40 PM

To Bob S...
According to Vaughn Horton, he recorded
the song in Sept. 1950 and Christmas week
it charted on Billboard

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 11 Nov 98 - 04:20 PM

The Waltz Book II says that its reference is "The Scandinavian Songbook" published by Edwin Morris & Co, 1936. Maybe Vaughn Horton put lyrics to an old Finnish folk tune. Maybe the Finns got it from him. When did he write it?

Any Scandinavians out there who know this song?

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 11 Nov 98 - 03:48 PM

And it didn't get recorded 'til ~25 years after he wrote it. But when it did it really took off.

Bob S.

Subject: Lyr Add: MOCKIN' BIRD HILL (Vaughn Horton)
From: Gene
Date: 11 Nov 98 - 12:09 PM

Don't know about that.... Do know about this... In Dorothy Horstman's book Sing Your Heart Out Country Boy The writer [Vaughn Horton] is quoted as saying he wrote the song while riding a train during several visits to see his father in the hospital and when it was finished he sang it to his father and the nurses It became one of the biggest hits ever being recorded over 400 times and selling over 20 million copies

MOCKIN' BIRD HILL
Recorded by: Patti Page
Writer: Vaughn Horton

When the sun in the mornin' peeps over the hill
And kisses the roses 'round my window sill
Then my heart fills with gladness when I hear the trill
Of the birds in the treetops on Mockin' Bird Hill.

CHORUS: Tra-la-la twit-tle dee-dee - it gives me a thrill
To wake up in the morning to the mockin' bird's trill
Tra-la-la twit-tle dee-dee - there's peace and goodwill
You're welcome as the flowers on Mockin' Bird Hill.

Got a three-cornered plow and an acre to till
And a mule that I bought for a ten-dollar bill
There's a tumble-down shack and a rusty ol' mill
But it's my home sweet home up on Mockin' Bird Hill.

CHORUS

When it's late in the evening I climb up the hill
And survey all my kingdom while ev'rything's still
Only me and the sky and an ol' whippoorwill
Singin' songs in the twilight on Mockin' Bird Hill.

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 11 Nov 98 - 12:01 PM

Thanks, Barbara, for corroborating my imagination! (To other mudcatters, no, I'm not talking to myself, at least not at the moment . . .)

Someone asked who wrote Mockingbird Hill, and there was some discussion as well as attributing the song to someone in Pennsylvania, I think.

(Boy, if I dreamed this, what a weird dream).

Anyway, in the book "The Waltz Book II" by Bill Matthiesen, there is a traditional Scandinavian tune called "Livet I Finnskogarna" which is the same melody, and which he says was the basis for Patti Page's hit in the 1950's.

Subject: RE: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Barbara
Date: 10 Nov 98 - 05:50 PM

I think it was here, Barbara, but I think we must have lost threads along with chucks of private messages and cookie sets. Ask again.
Blessings,
another Barbara

Subject: Did I Imagine This Thread? Mockingbird Hill
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 10 Nov 98 - 12:34 PM

I was all set to reply to someone who asked about the song "Mockingbird Hill" with some interesting background, and the thread disappeared. Did I imagine this thread during the days that the Mudcat was down? Did I read this somewhere else? Help!