"The Folks Who Live on the Hill": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"The Folks Who Live on the Hill"

Other songs written for the movie High, Wide and Handsome currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook: none

Comment: From Pete Collins, posted 07/20/2018: I previously commented on the song 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most' on this site, where the information provided talked about the version of that song by Jackie and Roy. Most internet postings on this song, 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill,' talk about the Peggy Lee version. Well, there is a more obscure version of 'Folks Who Live on the Hill' by Jackie and Roy that, IMHO, is better than Peggy's version. Their version was the only version of this song that was ever played by the 1960's Chicago Jazz disc jockey Sid McCoy. Sid was the A&R Man/Jazz Producer for the Jazz side of Vee Jay Records in Chicago from their start in the 1950's until about the mid 1960's, and he was an expert at picking out the best performances by Jazz artists. So I hope you can post Jackie & Roy's version when you fill out the information on this song.
There is also a vocal version of 'Folks' by Mel Torme that is worth hearing, and an instrumental version by Ahmad Jamal. None of these 3 versions discussed above are listed by Wikipedia, but all should be.
I like 'Folks' so much that I went out of my way to find a copy of the 1937 movie that this song was originally written for -- 'High, Wide and Handsome.' Well, to my surprise this movie is NOT a musical but is about building a crude oil pipeline across Pennsylvania. The song just happens to be sung in the middle of the movie by the lead actress, Irene Dunne, before the story line goes back to building the pipeline. This movie was somewhat of a disappointment and the Dunne version is nothing to write home about.

Cafe Songbook responds, 07/20/2018: Pete, Thanks for the interesting Jackie and Roy note about "The Folks Who Live on the Hill," but our usual sources have not as yet revealed anything about the duo's recording of the song. Do you have any added info on it? We would no doubt include it if we can find it. In the meantime, here is the Mel Tormé version from 1981 recorded live at Marty's in NYC and on which Mel is accompanied on various tracks by Cy Coleman (as below on piano) Gerry Mulligan and Janis Ian. (Mel, we should add, includes the verse for "The Folks Who Live on the Hill.") Amazon And here is the Ahmad Jamal solo piano version from 1980, live at Bubba's in Chicago. (The original album is now available as an MP3 album in the Jazz Masters series) Amazon

Notes

• For a complete listing of songs used in this movie, see IMDB Soundtrack .

Cite this page: "The Folks Who Live on the Hill": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/f/folks_who_live_on_the_hill.html