Mockingbird Hill

Words/music-Vaughn Horton, 1951
tabulated by ,


 6   -5   5   6  7    8  7     
When the sun in the morning 

  6   -5-6  7  -9
peeps over the hill

-6   6 -7   -8  -9-8  
And kisses the roses 

  -9   8  7 -6    6
'round my window sill;

6  -5   5      6    7     8   7  
And my heart fills with gladness 

  6  -5 -6   7  -9
when I hear the trill

-6  -6   6  -7  -8   -9 -8   
Of the birds in the treetops 

-9   8  7  7    7
on Mockingbird Hill.

refrain
 6  7  8    8  8    8  -9   8  
Tra la la, twiddle-dee dee-dee 

-8   7   -5-6    6
it gives me a thrill

 8-9   -8  -7  -6   6 -7   
To wake up in the morning 

-9  -9  8  7   -6      6
to the mockingbird's trill.

 6  7   8    8  8   8  -9  8   
Tra la la, twiddle-dee dee-dee 

-8        7   -5  -6     6
there's peace and good will.

 8     -9 -8  -7  -6   6 -7   
You're welcome as the flowers 

-8 -9   8  7  7     7
on the mockingbird hill.

When it's late in the evening I climb up the hill And survey all my kingdom while everything's still. Only me and the sun and an old whipporwill Ssinging songs in the twilight on mockingbird hill. Tra la la----etc.

This was a Les Paul/Mary Ford hit and was one of the early multiple-recording pieces that Les Paul originated. He jury-rigged himself the first multiple recording/playback tape deck, with the equivalent of 8 tracks, I believe, so he could do all the instrumentals (guitars, mostly.) I think he truly can be called the father of the electric guitar. One of his early electrics--as opposed to an "electrified acoustic" guitar--looked like a piece of 2 x 4 lumber with strings and mike pickups. Mary did multiple vocal parts, too. A technique later picked up by Patti Page and others. And the days of the single mike for such work was gone forever.