1955 Songs: The Ballad of Davy Crockett

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Hot date today! They’re having an Apple Watch class at the store this afternoon, and I’m going to it. While I have lunch I’ll give you another song that is now 70 years old, and this will show you what a song can do. And, as today is Texas Independence Day, what better song!! The Ballad of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes Let’s start at the ending: the songwriter’s name is BRUNS, not Burns. So no, the actor George Burns didn’t co-write this. This song was recorded AT LEAST fourteen times in a span of about 18 months. That includes versions that made the Billboard charts by SEVEN DIFFERENT acts, ranging from Fess Parker (who played Davy Crockett on TV) to Mac Wiseman in bluegrass and country. And that doesn’t include the Homer & Jethro parody! Along the way, millions of coonskin caps were sold (my brother said he had one). Oh, I was at the Alamo last year, and they still sell them there. A little trivia, per the information at the Alamo: Crocket did not want to be called “Davy.” He was David. There is a marker outside of the Alamo that indicates where Crockett is rumored to have fallen in the battle. Way back when, Disneyland (and, later, Disney World) had a section called “Frontierland.” The popularity of the TV show made that a popular part of the park. It also established Fess Parker as a “pioneer hero” star (he’d later play Daniel Boone) and set off the coonskin cap craze. And it gave us this song. Lots and lots and lots of times. This version is by Bill Hayes, the singer/actor who did the original recording released in January 1955. Hayes passed away last year at the age of 98 after a career in which he was best known for his role on Days of Our Lives. I never watched that soap, but I’m confident that he never wore a coonskin cap on the show. The Ballad of Davy Crockett Written by George Bruns and Thomas W. Blackburn Recorded by Bill Hayes Released as a single, 1955 Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee: