Released December 2, 1968 Genre Hard rock | Format Vinyl Length 2:51 | |
Recorded September 29, 1967; November 14, 1968 | ||
"Bluebirds over the Mountain" is a song written and recorded in 1958 by Ersel Hickey, later covered by artists such as The Beach Boys and Ritchie Valens.
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Hickey's original recording of the song peaked at #75 on the Billboard pop chart and #39 on the Cash Box chart. Ritchie Valens' cover version was released on his eponymous 1959 album following his death. A 1962 recording by The Echoes hit #112 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles survey and was a top 20 hit on Chicago's WLS.
The Beach Boys version
"Bluebirds over the Mountain" was covered by The Beach Boys and released as a single on December 2, 1968 with the B-side "Never Learn Not to Love". The song features Mike Love on lead vocals and it also features Ed Carter on guitar.
The single peaked at #61 on the Billboard pop chart in the United States, #53 in Canada's RPM chart, #33 in the United Kingdom and #9 in the Netherlands. It reached #36 on the Record World US national Top 40 and was most popular on playlists in a southwestern circle of centers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno, and Phoenix, just below the top 10 (just outside top 20 in San Francisco); similarly in midwestern cities Columbus, Indianapolis, Madison, the Twin Cities, and Detroit; and averaging slightly lower in the top 20 across Boston-Springfield, Detroit, and into the South at Memphis and Birmingham. It was subsequently included on the group's 1969 album 20/20.
The "B-Side" of this single, "Never Learn Not to Love", was written by infamous cult leader and murder instigator Charles Manson. Dennis Wilson was friends with Manson for a brief period of time prior to the "Tate-LaBianca Murders" as they would later be referred to.