According to Vaughn Horton, the classic standard, “Mockingbird Hill,” was written on a train! Horton commented, “That song was written while my dad was in the hospital in 1949. He was in Huntington, Pennsylvania, and I would ride the train from New York each weekend to visit him. I loved riding the train and I loved writing songs on the train so I began working on “Mockingbird Hill” during those weekend train trips.  When I finished the song, I brought a guitar to the hospital one weekend and played the song for my dad. He died a month later but before he died he told me that “Mockingbird Hill” would by my biggest song ever -- and he was right!”

“But I couldn’t get anybody to record the song.  So I called several musicians and we recorded the song in September 1950. The record made the charts on Christmas week.  Then Les Paul and Mary Ford recorded it and then several other artists recorded it.  All at once I had four versions of the song in the top 20 charts.  The song has now been recorded over 400 times.”

“Mockingbird Hill” entered the country music charts by The Pinetoppers in December 1950 and peaked at # three. It also scored a # 10 on the pop charts.

The song scored a # two pop hit for Patti Page in 1951.

Les Paul and Mary Ford’s version of the tune peaked at # 7 on the country charts in 1951 and made it to # 2 on the pop charts.

And Donna Fargo made it to # 9 on the country charts with “Mockingbird Hill” in 1977.

Doug Davis
Country Music Classics