Birds' Courting Song / Leather Winged Bat
First recording and first release by Burl Ives (January 31, 1941 / August 1941)
- Written by
- [Traditional]
- Publication date
- 1919
- Language
- English
- Comments
- This song was first published as "Birds' Courting Song" in the 1919 book of songs collected by Edith B. Sturgis "Songs from the Hills of Vermont", P. 40. The same song was again published in Cecil J. Sharp's 1921 "Nursery Songs from the Appalachian Mountains", this time called "The Bird Song". Each paragraph in the song involves a different form of bird (blackbird, blue jay, leather winged bat, dove, woodpecker, owl, swallow, hawk, crow, and robin) in a rhyming scheme about courtship and love. It is now considered a nursery rhyme. The song had so many verses it didn't lend itself to recording and had to be shortened. In August 1941, Burl Ives released a pared down version he called "Leather Winged Bat" with the leather winged bat as the first bird, then woodpecker and bluebird, and so the "Leather Winged Bat" (or "Leatherwing Bat") is now typically how the song is known. But again, depending on the type of birds chosen, the song can be known by many names but always involves the same "courtship" (or the failure of it) themes.
- Licensing
- Request a synchronization license