June Moon Top Ten: Roll Along Kentucky Moon (#10)

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Welcome to summer in the northern hemisphere! And, right on cue, it’s a heat wave! I’m having lunch, getting some frozen blueberries for fake sorbet, then going home and hug my air conditioner. First, we hit the top ten for moon songs. Sorry, Linda, but NO! yet again. #10: Roll Along Kentucky Moon - Eddy Arnold This became a standard. There are instrumental versions, vocal versions, pop versions…you name it. It started in 1932 with Jimmie Rodgers (“Father of Country Music” Jimmie Rodgers, not “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” Jimmie Rodgers). From there, bang. Gene Autry, long before “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” was a Jimmie Rodgers enthusiast/impersonator, and he recorded it soon after Rodgers died. One of Homer and Jethro’s first sessions for RCA in 1949, believe it or not, was Homer doing a perfectly straight version of this song. (Another believe it or not: behind the jokes, Homer had a terrific voice. Even on the parodies he occasionally showed it off.) Eddy Arnold’s version was the one we had when I was a kid, and it’s the one that introduced me to this marvelous tune (which is why I’m using that instead of the Rodgers original). From the “things I never knew” department (which thrills me to learn but will most likely put you to sleep), Arnold recorded this nine years to the day before I was born. He also had, as his backing band on the session, a trio known as the Oklahoma Wranglers. They were three brothers who later became semi-famous in country music as the Willis Brothers. (Vic Willis told me that I didn’t look old enough to remember the Willis Brothers singing the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercials on the Grand Ole Opry in the 1960, so I had to sing “Sweetheart of the Corn” to him to prove it. ) So I’m reveling in new information and you’re going, “Get to the rock and roll, PLEASE!” Moon day, I mean, Monday. Roll Along Kentucky Moon Written by Bill Halley Recorded by Eddy Arnold Released as a single, 1951 (Originally recorded by Jimmie Rodgers, 1932) A love dream that ended too soon: