1949: Big Rock Candy Mountain.
1949: Big Rock Candy Mountain by Burl Ives was re-recorded in 1949. Another favourite of the 1950’s onwards on the BBC Children’s Favourites programme. Harry McClintock, a.k.a. Haywire Mac, claimed to have written the original words for the song in 1897-1898 at the age of 15 or 16, drawing from songs by other hobos, although sources vary widely as to his locale and vocation at the time of the writing. A big hit for the larger-than-life Burl Ives, this song was written again way back in 1928, although the guy who claimed to write it probably drew on older folk songs dating back to the previous century. That man was Harry McClintock and when he came to record it, he had to clean up a lot of the rather saucy and downright vulgar lines! Burl Ives had many “child-friendly” top ten hits.
