Dave's Song of the Day
The Tennessee Waltz – Patti Page
Monday song of the day: Today’s song was the B-side of
Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.
Country artists Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart heard the Bill Monroe song
Kentucky Waltz in 1946 and decided to write a song called
Tennessee Waltz for King’s band The Golden West Cowboys. The two songs had little to do with each other beside the name of a state and the word “waltz.”
King and Stewart were delayed in recording the song, and former band member Cowboy Copas recorded a version slightly before them in late 1947. Although recorded a bit later, the version by Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys was the first version of
Tennessee Waltz released. It was released in late January 1948, beating the Cowboy Copas record to stores by two months. Both versions were hits, with the Pee Wee King record placing at #3 on the Country charts – at that time called the “Best Selling Folk Retail Records” chart – while the Cowboy Copas record placed at #6 a few months later.
The song would be unfamiliar to anyone other than country music aficionados, however, if Patti Page hadn’t decided to record a cover version in 1950. She had recorded it as the B-side of a novelty Christmas record called
Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, which was duly released in November 1950. The Patti Page version used the slightly different title
The Tennessee Waltz, adding the word “the” to the original name.
As sometimes happens, the B-side of the record got more attention than the A-side. When it became clear that
The Tennessee Waltz would far outlive the Christmas themed A-side, the record label re-released the song as the A-side of a single in early 1951, backed with the song
Long, Long Ago as the B-side.
The Tennessee Waltz ended up becoming a massive crossover hit, staying on the mainstream Pop Music chart (a forerunner of the
Billboard Hot 100) for over thirty weeks. It held the #1 spot for nine straight weeks, and sold over ten million singles. This made it the top selling single by a female solo performer of all time, until passed by Gloria Gaynor’s
I Will Survive in 1978 (currently, the top spot is held by Whitney Houston’s
I Will Always Love You, from 1992).
Since Patti Page made the song a hit, it has been covered over 350 times, by artists as diverse as Petula Clark, Pat Boone, Sam Cooke, Ella Fitzgerald, and even Elvis Presley.
The Tennessee Waltz, Patti Page, 1950
View: https://youtu.be/FJbj5jAwI1A
Tennessee Waltz, Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys, 1948
View: https://youtu.be/ePwI5KEd8D0
Tomorrow: Checking every girl in sight