'Tennessee Waltz' Written by Redd Stewart & Pee Wee King
"Tennessee Waltz" is a popular country music song with lyrics by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King written in 1946 and first released in January 1948. The song became a multi-million seller via a 1950 recording – as "The Tennessee Waltz" – by Patti Page. As of 1974, it was the biggest selling song ever in Japan.
As the story goes . . . Redd & Pee Wee King were riding in the back of a truck in Nashville, when Pee Wee turned to Redd and asked him, 'why haven't you written a song about your hometown, Tennessee?' Redd pulled out a large box of matches, emptied the matches and began to write down lyrics on the back of the matchbox titled, 'Tennessee Waltz.' When Redd got home he finished the lyrics, re-wrote the song onto sheet music and he and Pee Wee King eventually polished the song.
Redd tried to sell the song with no luck. He tried to give the song away, with no luck, and finally placed the song in his fiddle case, where it stayed for a long time. During a session in the studio where Patti Page was recording, Patti asked if anyone had a song that she could place on the 'B' side of her “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus. Someone suggested the song Redd had called , 'Tennessee Waltz', which she used and was expected to be a throwaway number . When the 'Tennessee Waltz' was played over the radio, well, the rest is history! *The original 'Tennessee Waltz' sheet music was sold and now sits in the University of Tennessee. YouTube Video
Over two hundred albums that include the song, 'Tennessee Waltz' are on this site for you to enjoy! Every kind of version you can imagine is included here . . . trombone, clarinet, steel guitar, piano, fiddle, acoustic guitar, Jazz version, Swing version, and the list goes on! You might just be surprised who you find on here!
Click on picture to hear their version of the song
