Mockin’ Bird Hill

Mockin’ Bird Hill is a song written in 3/4 time by Carl “Calle” Jularbo, with lyrics by George Vaughn Horton and perhaps best known through recordings by Patti Page, Donna Fargo, and the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951. he music of “Mockin’ Bird Hill” is based closely on a Swedish waltz called “Livet i Finnskogarna” (Life in the Finn Woods), recorded by Calle Jularbo in 1915, which enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. It also has close roots to another old Scandinavian waltz – a gammaldans called “Norska bondvals,” or “Norwegian farmer’s waltz.” The first recording of the song was made by the Pinetoppers a group consisting of George Vaughn Horton and his brother Roy Horton plus three other men: this recording, which featured a female duo billed as the Beaver Valley Sweethearts, was issued on Coral Records in October 1950. The first recording of “Mockin’ Bird Hill” by an established act was made by Les Paul and Mary Ford, released as Capitol 1373 on January 29, 1951. Patti Page soon recorded the song herself, believing that record buyers assumed that the Paul/Ford single was her own new release. Page first learned of “Mockin’ Bird Hill” while at Midway Airport: having just completed a Chicago nightclub engagement she was awaiting a flight to New York City to stopover before proceeding to Florida to open at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach the next evening. Page received a phone call at Midway from Mercury Records,  Art Talmadge at whose request Page skipped her scheduled flight to allow Talmadge to reach Midway with a portable turntable to play Page the Paul/Ford single which Talmadge suggested Page record once she’d reached New York City. Page was reluctant to make a recording without the participation of her regular conductor, Jack Rael, who awaited Page in Florida; however, Talmadge had already cleared Page’s recording of “Mockin’ Bird Hill” with Rael and had booked studio time and musicians for Page to make the recording. Page recalled: “They had a limo at the airport [in New York City], took me to Bob Fine’s studio. I cut just that one song. I was very happy with it and couldn’t wait for Jack to hear it. He said ‘This is really very good.’ He called Art, and Art said ‘I’m glad you like it, Jack, because we’ve already shipped 200,000 records.”