On Top of Old Smoky
Pete Seeger recorded his arrangement of \u201cOn Top of Old Smoky\u201d with The Weavers in 1951, but the tune had been traveling the Appalachians and Ozarks for over a century. You\u2019re on the Sound Beat.
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\nThe Weavers recorded the song for Decca Records and it reached #2 on Billboard that year. It\u2019s classic Seeger, his characteristic songleading on display.
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\nSONG CUE
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\nBing Crosby called Old Smoky \u201cThe big song of the year.\u201d And it was no exaggeration: Burl Ives shared the Billboard list with the Weavers, reaching number 10 with the same song in the same year.
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\nOf course, if you can listen to it and not think about spaghetti, sneezing and meatballs, more power to you.
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\nThis episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Dan Stack as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.