"On Top of Old Smoky" is a traditional folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 song and a well-known ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which, as recorded by The Weavers

The Weavers

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...

, reached the pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 charts in 1951.

On top of Old Smoky, all covered with snow

I lost my true lover, for courtin'

Courtship

Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...

 too slow...

Old Smoky may be a high mountain somewhere in the Ozarks or the central Appalachians, as the tune bears the stylistic hallmarks of the Scottish and Irish people who settled the region. Possibilities include Clingmans Dome

Clingmans Dome

Clingmans Dome is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. At an elevation of , it is the highest mountain in the Smokies, the highest point in the state of Tennessee, and the highest point along the Appalachian Trail...

, named "Smoky Dome" by local Scots-Irish inhabitants, but exactly which mountain it is may be lost to antiquity.

The recording by The Weavers used an arrangement by Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

, and was made on February 21, 1951. It was released by Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 as catalog number

Catalog numbering systems for single records

This article presents the numbering systems used by various record companies for single records.- Capitol :...

 27515. It reached #2 on the Billboard chart and #1 on the Cash Box

Cash Box magazine

Cashbox magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries in the USA which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996...

 chart, and sold over a million copies. The song also became one of Burl Ives

Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....

' signature songs, with his recording reaching #10 on the Billboard chart in 1951.

Most versions use the same melody and rhythm as "Down in the Valley

Down in the Valley

Down in the Valley is a movie starring Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse and Rory Culkin. The film made its debut in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival on May 13, and made its limited theatrical release in North America in May 2006.-Plot:Set in modern-day San...

", another traditional American folk song. One notable exception is a version By Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

 on his album, The Mayor of McDougal Street: Rarities 1957-1969. This version sounds much more Celtic in nature, with more vocal ornamentation and a looser rhythmic structure.

Use in popular culture

The song is parodied often, one well-known parody version which was a hit in 1963, "On Top of Spaghetti

On Top of Spaghetti

"On Top of Spaghetti" is a ballad and children's song written and originally performed by folk singer Tom Glazer with the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus in 1963. The song is sung to the tune of "On Top Of Old Smokey". It is essentially the tale of a meatball that was lost when "somebody sneezed"...

" by Tom Glazer

Tom Glazer

Thomas Zachariah "Tom" Glazer was an American folk singer and songwriter known primarily as a composer of ballads, including: "Because All Men Are Brothers", recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary, "Talking Inflation Blues", recorded by Bob Dylan, and "A Dollar Ain't A Dollar Anymore"...

, deals with the loss of a meatball "when somebody sneezed." That parody was itself a parody of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 disc jockey

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

 Dick Biondi

Dick Biondi

Dick Biondi is an American Top 40 and Oldies disc jockey. Calling himself "The Wild I-tralian", he was one of the original "screamers," known for his screaming delivery as well as his wild antics on the air and off. In a 1988 interview, Biondi related he had been fired 23 times; both fits of...

's "Pizza Song." Some of "On Top of Spaghetti" was sung by DJ & Stephanie in an episode of the TV show Full House

Full House

Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...

.

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...

 covered the song for their 1962 album The Chipmunk Songbook

The Chipmunk Songbook

The Chipmunk Songbook is an album by Alvin and the Chipmunks with David Seville. It was released in January 1, 1962 by Liberty Records.In 1986, a two-record compilation album was released by Capitol-EMI America, also titled The Chipmunk Songbook, and featuring an entirely different track listing,...

.

In his "Schticks of One and a Half Dozen of the Other" medley, Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...

 invented this lyric: "On top of Old Smokey / All covered with hair / Of course, I'm referring / To Smokey the Bear

Smokey Bear

Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. An advertising campaign featuring Smokey was created in 1944 with the slogan, "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires". Smokey Bear's later slogan,...

."

The country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...

 sometimes uses the first part of "On Top Of Old Smoky" as a joke

Joke

A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...

 in concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

. The opening bars to Lucille

Lucille (Kenny Rogers song)

"Lucille" is the title of a ballad written by Roger Bowling and Hal Bynum, and recorded by Kenny Rogers. It was released in January 1977 as the second and final single from the album Kenny Rogers. The song is about a man in a bar that meets a woman who has left her husband...

 (one of his biggest hits) play with Rogers saying to the crowd something along the lines of "None of you know what song this is", when the audience reply with "Yes we do", Rogers then begins to sing "On Top Of Old Smoky."

The Swedish comedian Povel Ramel

Povel Ramel

Baron Povel Karl Henric Ramel was a Swedish entertainer. Ramel was a singer, pianist, vaudeville artist, author and a novelty song composer. His style was characterized by imaginative wit, both verbal and musical...

 wrote and recorded a Swedish version: Högt uppe på berget, jag har till en vän, förlorat en femma, jag lär nog aldrig se den utigen (High up the mountain, I gave to a friend, lost 5 kronor

Swedish krona

The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

, I doubt I'll see them again). Also, Swedish comedy group(s) Galenskaparna och After Shave

Galenskaparna och After Shave

Galenskaparna och After Shave is the name of the two Swedish comedian groups Galenskaparna and After Shave from Gothenburg.In 1982 they joined together to collaborate on the revue show Skruven är lös , and thereafter became more or less known as one group...

 performed a variant in their "Grisen i Säcken" revue.

Little Eva

Little Eva

Eva Narcissus Boyd , known by the stage name of Little Eva , was an American pop singer.-Biography:...

, singer of The Locomotion

The Locomotion

The Locomotion may refer to:*The Loco-Motion; a 1962 song by R&B singer Little Eva and covered by several artists*Locomotion No 1; an early railway locomotive...

, recorded a version called "Old Smokey Locomotion", with lyrics describing how the residents of Old Smokey caught on to The Locomotion.

The 1959 single "We're Coming To Your House" by the Three Stooges

Three Stooges

The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

 is sung to the tune of "On Top Of Old Smoky."

Alternative country band The Gourds

The Gourds

The Gourds are an American alternative country band that formed in Austin, Texas during the summer of 1994.-Career:Primarily evolving from the Picket Line Coyotes and the Grackles, The Gourds original line-up consisted of Kevin Russell , Jimmy Smith , Claude Bernard , and Charlie Llewellin...

 gangstered the lyrics to "On Top Of Old Smoky" in the song "I'm troubled" on their 1998 release Gogitchyershinebox.

On the Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

 album Bert & Ernie Sing-Along

Bert & Ernie Sing-Along

Bert and Ernie Sing Along is a Sesame Street album released in 1975 that involved the entire cast of humans and Muppets doing a sing-a-long in Bert and Ernie's bathroom....

, Grover

Grover

Grover is a Muppet character on the popular television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a monster who almost never uses contractions when speaking or singing....

 does a version where the second line is "all covered with dirt," then proceeds to tell of him losing various clothing and personal items, including his way home. He then finds his way home, and finds his mother with all the stuff he thought he had lost.

In Family Guy

Family Guy (season 4)

The fourth season of Family Guy aired from May 1, 2005 to May 21, 2006. The season consisted of thirty episodes. The first half of the season is included within the Volume Three DVD box set, which was released on November 29, 2005 and the second half is included within the Volume Four DVD box set,...

, Season Four, "Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. High", Chris' principal receives a massage from "Estovan", and sings "On Top of Old Smoky".

In the 2010 film The Runaways

The Runaways (film)

The Runaways is a 2010 American biographical film about the 1970s all-girl rock band of the same name. The film was written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, who based the screenplay on the book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by the band's original lead vocalist Cherie Currie...

, Joan Jett (played by Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...

) changes the third and fourth lines to "I dumped my poor sweetheart, for screwing too slow"

In the That's so Raven

That's So Raven

That's So Raven is an American cable television teen sitcom/fantasy series. The show premiered on the Disney Channel on January 17, 2003, and ended on November 10, 2007. The show spawned Disney Channel's first spin-off series: Cory in the House...

episode titled "On Top of Old Oaky", Towards the end of the episode, Chelsea sings a song about Old Oaky with similar lyrics to On top of Old Smoky. The only lyrics heard were, On top of Old Oaky, All covered with leaves. In another episode of the show. When Raven's memories are projected onto a screen and it shows the time Raven, Chelsea & Eddie when they planted a new tree sapling to grow into another Old Oaky. When they sing the song, On the captions. The lyrics to On Top of Old Smoky appear on the Television screen rather than the Old Oaky lyrics.

The comedian Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...

 commented that true devotees of folk songs find singing fifty verses of On Top of Old Smoky twice as enjoyable as singing twenty-five.

Use in Classical Music

Erno Dohnanyi

Erno Dohnányi

Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....

used the tune (and also two other traditional American folktunes) in his final composition American Rhapsody (1953).