B-side A Thousand Years Format 45 rpm Length 2:41 | Released June 1961 Genre Country pop Label Dot | |
"Moody River" is a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song from June 1961 performed by Pat Boone. It was written by and originally performed by country rockabilly singer Chase Webster (real name Gary Daniel Bruce, not to be confused with Gary Bruce of the Knack). Webster was a labelmate of Boone's at Dot Records.
This was the title track from one of Boone's better-selling albums. Boone sang this song as if he were in pain. It was covered some years later by Johnny Burnette in 1962, also Frank Sinatra and Johnny Rivers. In August 2009, John Fogerty covered the song in the album entitled The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.
Plot
The song tells the story of a man who goes to meet his love at the river, by the old oak tree, and finds that she has committed suicide. A note on the riverbank explains that she has cheated on him and that "No longer can I live with this hurt and this sin. I just couldn't tell you that guy was just a friend." He then looks into the river and sees his own reflection on the river looking back, ever hauntingly, at him. He is the "lonely, lonely face just lookin' back at me". So with "Tears in his eyes, and a prayer on his lips, and the glove of his lost love, at his fingertips".