"Beautiful Brown Eyes"
![[image of music]](FFsniply-Beautiful Brown Eyes.png)
Waltz, Dmaj, .
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Playing or Personal Notes:
No personal notes.
History
This tune has an interesting copyright past, which complicates it's potential use.
In summary, it appears to be an old Ozark Mountain song, that was collected in the 20's, and again in the 40's. A couple of lads (Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore) active in the Bluegrass scene and regulars at the Ol' Opry in the 30's put it together and popularized it. At some point in the 40's it was published, establishing their apparent copyright. This formed the basis for their copyright infringement suit against several artists in the 50's (starting with Roy Acuff) claiming the song was PD. Subsequent recordings such the one by Glen Cmpbell all attribute them.
From wikipedia, in the entry for Glen Campbell, attributed to Arthur Smith/Lionel Delmore/Jerry Capehart. Also from wikipedia;
Fiddlin' Arthur Smith (April 10, 1898 - February 28, 1971) was an American old time fiddler and a big influence on the old time and bluegrass music genres...his signature song Beautiful Brown Eyes. That particular song led Smith to take action in court against some cover artists who had recorded the song as if it was in the public domain. He ended up winning the suit.
Several items from the Digital Tradition;
Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes
"Willie, oh Willie, I love you
Love you with all my heart;
Tomorrow we might have been married,
But liquor has kept us apart."
cho: Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes,
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes,
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes,
I'll never love blue eyes again .
"Seven long years l've been married,
l wish l was single again;
A woman never knows of her troubles
Until she has married a man."
Down to the barroom he staggered,
Staggered and fell at the door;
The last words that he ever uttered,
"l'll never get drunk any more."
(or I'll never see brown eyes no more)
From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph
Collected from Kathleen Oxford, Arkansas, 1941
Recorded by Jimmy Wakely, Roy Acuff, Alton Delmore, Arthur Smith etc.
"Beautiful Brown Eyes" - Copyright by Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore. Removed from Randolph "Ozark Folk-Songs," Revised Edition, because of this. See thread 6744: Beautiful Brown eyes Some lines used in older songs.
Subject: RE: Origins: The authors of the 'Carter Family songs' From: Richie Date: 14 Nov 08 - 05:56 PM Hi,
It's interesting Q about Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes. The song was collected in 1928. It was removed from Randolph "Ozark Folk-Songs," Revised Edition, because of a copyright that was put on it in the 1930s. That's just plain wrong IMHO.
The problem was it was a big hit in the early 1950s, since a bunch of mnoey was involved and high record sales, the record company with a bogus copyright began enforcing it.
Anton Delmore claims he wrote the song. I'd bet anything he learned it from Arthur Smith who learned it from someone else. The fact that it was collected years before they recorded the song should matter.
An interesting story about the song is told in Alton's autobiography "Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity." I'll tell it from memory:
The family was sitting down eating Thanksgiving dinner at Alton's house in the early 1950s. In the background he heard the song Beautiful Beautiful Brown Eyes.
"I wrote the number one song in the country," he said. "And we barely have enough money to buy a Turkey."
The way he looked at it and the way it was back in the early days: The first person to record a song- well... it was their song.
So that was his song and maybe Arthur Smith's. Somehow he didn't get royalties, probably because he signed them away or the record company took them.
Richie
Note that "Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes" was removed from the reprint of the 4-volume Ozark Folksongs by Randolph because it is a copyrighted song. The abridged Norm Cohen one-volume edition of Ozark Folksongs by Randolph has the following notes: "A song entitled "Beautiful Brown Eyes" was recorded in Little Rock, Ark., in 1936 (LC Checklist, p. 20.)"
"For another collected version, see Gordon MS 2409 (E. J. Black). This song enjoyed a revival of popularity when it was recorded by Jimmy Wakely in 1951 (Capitol 1393) with words credited to Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore."
"Earlier hillbilly recordings include Blue Sky Boys (Bluebird-B7755), Arthur Smith Trio (Bluebird B-7221), White Brothers (Vocalion 04674), Roy Acuff (Vocalion 05163)."
"Ozark recordings Gilbert Fike (AFS 3186A1), Kathleen Oxford (AFS 5355 B2 [reproduced on pp. 270-271 of Cohen and placed in the DT], Gene and Idis Neal (UArk R110), Rose Sloan (MFH 520)."
Apparently the song is copyright by Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore.
The original song was written by Alton Delmore (the Delmore Bro.) and possibly a collaborator. Alton's daughter is friends of my folks in Tennessee and has the original written version and awards the song has won. It was written for her older sister when she was a child.
A search of the US Copyright records was no help, as it only catalogs records from 1978 onwards.
From All Music Guide;
In the middle of this low period, Smith had the pleasure of hearing Roy Acuff singing "Beautiful Brown Eyes," no doubt while he was sawing a board on some job. The song became so popular that there were scores of cover versions, but everyone followed Acuff's lead and declared the song "public domain," despite it having appeared in a published Smith song folio in 1943. Smith won the suit but it was settled for a lump sum rather than any actual account of royalties.