laurel and hardy on the trail of the lonesome pine

Laurel and hardy on the trail of the lonesome pine movie#

Laurel And Hardy’s song follows a glorious dance sequence in Way Out West: a scene set on the steps of a saloon bar (the dance is recreated in the biopic Stan And Ollie, which stars Steve Coogan and John C Reilly) when they move inside Mickey Finn’s bar, the saloon’s cowboy band – Walter Trask And The Avalon Boys – sing the ballad “The Blue Ridge Mountains Of Virginia,” which had been written by Ballard MacDonald and Harry Carroll in the early 1900s. In a 1974 song for Wings, “Junior’s Farm,” Paul McCartney included the lyric, “Olly Hardy should have had more sense.”

The comedy duo appears on the iconic cover of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, while Harry Nilsson used to imitate Laurel scratching his head to make John Lennon laugh. Peel wasn’t the only Laurel And Hardy fan in the music industry. “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine” also turned up on a list of Peel’s 15 favorite singles from 1975, alongside John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.” When he curated the 1988 Meltdown festival, Peel included a Dutch revivalist ensemble called Beau Hunks playing Laurel And Hardy film music.Ĭlick to load video Laurel and Hardy’s musical influence and roots In the autumn of 1975, he played “The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine” every night of the week on his influential Radio 1 show (he even regularly played the B-side, “Honolulu Baby”) and it gained traction in the charts. He told Warner that it seemed “a DJ called John Peel liked ‘The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine’” and had promised to give it some air time. “Well old boy, I’ve got some really good news for you,” he reported back to United Artists executive Alan Warner. United Artists Records sent their promotions manager, a jolly ex-Royal Navy man who was famed for his outlandish toupée (and would not have looked out of place in a Laurel And Hardy film), to the BBC to drum up interest in the single they had picked from the album. The album, mastered at Abbey Road Studios, included a number of Laurel And Hardy’s film songs.

Laurel and hardy on the trail of the lonesome pine movie#

In the mid-70s, Laurel And Hardy’s films were shown regularly on the BBC – the feature-length black-and-white movie Way Out West had been watched by millions on BBC One on Christmas Day 1974 – and a record company decided to release an LP called The Golden Age Of Hollywood Comedy. The song was also recorded by Vivian Stanshall and (as 'Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia') by Tokyo Blade.So how did a novelty song, taken from the 1937 comedy Way Out West, come close to challenging one of rock music’s greatest songs, recorded by one of the 20th Century’s most popular bands? The strange story involves John Peel and the power of the radio DJ. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, thanks largely to being championed by disc jockey John Peel on his Radio 1 evening show. Released as a single, the song reached No. In 1975, at a time when Laurel and Hardy films were popular on British television, the UK branch of United Artists Records produced an album of dialogue and songs, Laurel & Hardy – The Golden Age Of Hollywood Comedy, that included 'The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'. Reilly as part of the 2019 biographical film Stan & Ollie. This stage routine was performed by actors Steve Coogan and John C. It was performed by Laurel and Hardy with The Avalon Boys and featured a section sung in deep bass by Chill Wills, lip-synced by Stan Laurel in the film, with the last line in falsetto (sung by Rosina Lawrence) after Ollie hit Stan on the head with a mallet.

The song was featured in Laurel and Hardy's 1937 film Way Out West. It appears to have been first recorded in New York on 28 March 1913 by the Spanish-American tenor Manuel Romain and released in June of that year on issue number 1743 of the Edison Blue Amberol Record label. The chorus is: In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, On the trail of the lonesome pine- In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine, Where she carved her name and I carved mine Oh, June, like the mountains I'm blue- Like the pine I am lonesome for you, In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, On the trail of the lonesome pine. Inspired by John Fox, Jr.'s 1908 novel of the same title, the song expresses the singer's love for his girl, June, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. 'The Trail of the Lonesome Pine' is a popular song published in 1913, with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and music by Harry Carroll.