Blue Tail Twist

“Blue Tail Twist” is a rockified setting of the Southern Folk Song, “Blue Tail Fly”. Burl Ives had a hit with the song in 1948.

In 1960, an instrumental rock group, Johnny and the Hurricanes, turned it into a rock number called “Beatnik Fly”, which reached the singles charts in both the USA and UK. At the time it was fairly popular to use well-known traditional songs as the basis for recordings. Johnny and the Hurricanes had an earlier hit called “Red River Rock”.

The Ventures picked up on this trend, including a versions of “Red River Valley” on their 1962 album “The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull” and “Blue Tail Fly” on “Twist Party Vol. 2, also in 1962.

My arrangement of “Blue Tail Fly” is in this tradition and style , bit is not a cover of anyone else’s version.