"When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" is a popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

, published in 1931

1931 in music

-Events:*May 21 - RCA Victor's first commercially issued 33⅓ rpm record, "Salon Suite, No. 1" by The Victor Salon Orchestra, directed by Nathaniel Shilkret, was recorded*Roy Rogers' musical career begins*Mary Garden retires from the Chicago Opera...

, and credited as written by Howard Johnson

Howard Johnson (lyricist)

Howard Johnson was a song lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Songwriter , author and lyricist, Johnson was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and died in New York, New York. He was educated in high school and in private music study...

, Harry M. Woods

Harry M. Woods

Henry MacGregor Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist. Woods is sometimes credited as Harry Woods.-Early life:...

, and Kate Smith

Kate Smith

Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...

. As Johnson is primarily known as a lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

 and Woods, when collaborating with lyricists, primarily wrote music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, the actual apportionment of the credits would be likely to be music by Woods, lyrics by Johnson, and possibly some small contribution by Smith in order to give her a share of royalty

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

 income.

"When the Moon Comes over the Mountain" became Kate Smith's theme song on radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, including her last CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 series, The Kate Smith Show

The Kate Smith Show

The Kate Smith Show is a half-hour, short-lived variety program which aired on CBS television from January 25 to July 18, 1960. The program features singer Kate Smith and the Harry Simeone Chorale.-Background:...

in 1960.