Mockin' Bird Hill by Vaughn Horton "In 1949, my father was in hospital in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and I would visit him by train every weekend from New York. I used to love to ride trains and I used to write songs on trains, so I would write a little bit of it each time. When I finished it, I brought a guitar to the hospital and played it for him and the nurses. That was the first public performance of 'Mockin' Bird Hill.' He predicted, 'That'll be your biggest song ever,' and sure enough, he was right. He died about a month later. Nobody would record it, so I got a band together and recorded it myself in September 1950. Christmas week it went on the Billboard charts as a hillbilly record. It was recorded by Les Paul, Patti Page and Russ Morgan and soon after, I had four records in the top twenty, including number one and number two. It's one of the biggest songs of all times; it has been recorded more than 400 times and has sold over twenty million copies." —Vaughn Horton Mockin' Bird Hill 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 tree-tops on Mockin' Bird Hill. Tra-la la twit-tle-dee dee dee, it gives me a thrill To wake up in the mornin' to the mockin' bird's trill Tra-la la twit-tle dee dee dee, there's peace and good will 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. 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. Buy the song Mockin' Bird Hill