Tapping toes in Loughlynn

The enduring ‘Tennessee Waltz’


People and Places
Michael Commins

SOMETIMES you just hit lucky. While many authors spend weeks or months writing books and novels, some songwriters can occasionally pen a classic in minutes or certainly in a few hours.
‘The Tennessee Waltz’ has become one of the best-loved songs and melodies in country music. Yet, this simple and straight-forward number contains just eight lines, making it one of the biggest hits with the fewest words ever recorded in the genre.
Singer Pee Wee King (yes, folks, there would be some smiles in these parts with a name like ‘Pee Wee’!) and Redd Stewart, a musician in his band, were travelling home from a gig one night in late 1946 and were close to the Texas-Arkansas border when some station was playing Bill Monroe and his big hit of the time, ‘The Kentucky Waltz’.
It just struck them there and then … why not have a waltz called after Tennessee. In less than an hour, Pee Wee and Redd had the famous eight lines scribbled down on a cigarette box. The words were written to complement a tune they were playing in the band for some time. They called it the ‘No Name Waltz’ as they did not know the real name of the tune. (This scenario is very common in Irish traditional music where often tunes have no particular name).
‘The Tennessee Waltz’ was recorded by a number of country singers shortly afterwards, including Roy Acuff, but it was perhaps the more poppy version of the song by Patti Page that made it an international standard, rocketing up both the pop and country charts in 1950. It also made Patti a huge star of that era. It became a phenomenally popular song and time has not diminished its appeal.
In the 60 years since it was composed, the song has become one of the most recorded country numbers of all time. Tom Jones, supported by The Chieftains, recorded it on ‘The Long Black Veil’ album in the mid-1990s. A host of major singers from various musical backgrounds have been enchanted by the simple words and haunting melody. And it remains one of the most popular numbers in sing-songs in the English-speaking world.
The song was adopted as one of the State songs of Tennessee back in 1965. It is understood that not an hour goes by but that the song is playing somewhere in the world. And all because of a simple bout of inspiration by two musicians on the way home from a country show way back then.

The Tennessee Waltz

I was waltzing with my darlin’ to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced him to my loved one and while they were waltzing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me

Chorus:
I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes I lost my little darlin’ the night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz