Cotton Fields - Creedence Clearwater Revival (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

Cotton Fields (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2023-06-08. "Keeping the Oldies & Classics Alive"

"Cotton Fields," written by Huddie Ledbetter (aka Lead Belly), was originally released by Lead Belly in 1940. Since then many artists have recorded the song. Although their version did not reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Creedence Clearwater Revival's (CCR) version, which was released in 1969 on their Willie and the Poorboys LP, did rise to the no. 1 position on the Billboard's Hits of the World chart in Mexico in 1970 (Bukkbiardm 2022; Whitburn, 2006). CCR's version removed a second verse from the song ("It may sound a little funny, but you didn't make very much money. In them old cotton fields at home") and simply repeated the first verse three times. The Highwaymen's version in 1961 rose to the no. 13 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (Whitburn, 2013). And although the Beach Boys' 1969 version did not chart in the USA, "It was number 1 in Australia, South Africa, Sweden and Norway, number 2 in Denmark, number 3 in Ireland, similarly top 5 in the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain and Rhodesia; number 12 in the Netherlands, number 13 in New Zealand and number 29 in Germany" (the-paulmccartney-project., 2016). Interesting that Ledbetter's lyric “It was down in Louisiana, just a mile from Texarkana” and other artists' lyric “just ABOUT a mile from Texarkana” is geographically incorrect. Texarkana is about 30 miles north of Louisiana in Arkansas (googlemaps, 2023; howderfamily, 2011).

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Lyrics:

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home;

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton,
In them old cotton fields back home.

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home;

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton,
In them old cotton fields back home.

It was down in Louisiana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old cotton fields back home.

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle,
In them old cotton fields back home;