Mockin' Bird Hill by Les Paul and Mary Ford

Album: Ultimate Collection (1951)

Charted: 2

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Songfacts®:

It is difficult to believe that this quaint little song, half waltz, half lullaby, is an important milestone in the development of contemporary music, but according to Don Tyler's 2007 compendium Hit Songs 1900-1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era, it was the first song in which electric guitar pioneer and innovator Les Paul used overdubbing. This is probably not quite correct, Paul was experimenting with multi-tracking as early as 1947, and released a song that year which featured multi-tracking. "Mockin' Bird Hill" does though appear to be the first such record to have been a hit.
The song was written by Vaughn Horton and sung by Mary Ford, Paul's wife. >>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
Other artists to record this song include George Jones, Patti Page and Gene Pitney.

Comments: 1

Keith from Wausau, WiWhen Les and Mary recorded this song in their kitchen at home, Mary hated it. She thought it was a terrible song, with all the "tra-la-la's" and so forth. Les told her it was going to be a hit. After she had gone to bed, Les sneaked the recording out of the house and rushed it down to Capitol Records, where the released it almost immediately. Within a week or two, it was Number One.

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