Bluebirds over the Mountain

"Bluebirds over the Mountain"
Single by The Beach Boys
from the album 20/20
B-side	"Never Learn Not to Love"
Released	December 2, 1968
Format	Vinyl
Recorded	September 29, 1967; November 14, 1968
Genre	Hard rock[1]
Length	2:51
Label	Capitol
Writer(s)	Ersel Hickey
Producer(s)	Bruce Johnston Carl Wilson
The Beach Boys singles chronology
"Do It Again" (1968) "Bluebirds over the Mountain" (1968) "I Can Hear Music" (1969)
20/20 track listing 12 tracks Side one "Do It Again" "I Can Hear Music" "Bluebirds over the Mountain" "Be with Me" "All I Want to Do" "The Nearest Faraway Place" Side two "Cotton Fields" "I Went to Sleep" "Time to Get Alone" "Never Learn Not to Love" "Our Prayer" "Cabinessence"

"Bluebirds over the Mountain" is a song written by Ersel Hickey, later covered by artists such as The Beach Boys and Ritchie Valens.

The Echoes 1962 version hit Billboard's Bubbling Under The Top 100 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 on their 1969 album 20/20. It was also released as a single on December 2, 1968 with the B-side "Never Learn Not to Love".^[2] 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 and at #33 in the United Kingdom and went to #9 in the Netherlands. It reached #36 on the Record World national Top 40 and went into the top 20 in Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis and Columbus.

The "B-Side" of this single, "Never Learn Not To Love" was written by notorious murderer, Charles Manson. Dennis Wilson was friends with Manson for a brief period of time before the "Tate-LaBianca Murders" as they would later be referred to.

Other covers

West Virginian horror punk band Blitzkid covered this song on their 2002 split, "Exhuming Graves and Making Dates". American new wave band The Jet Blackberries on their 1984 album Sundown on Venus.

References