“The Old Lamp-Lighter” – 1946
The music was written by Nat Simon, the lyrics by Charles Tobias. The song was published in 1946. Several versions of the song made the best-seller charts in 1946-1947:
The most popular recording, by Sammy Kaye, was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-1963. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on November 8, 1946, and lasted 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at number one.
The recording by Kay Kyser was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 37095. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on November 22, 1946, and lasted 11 weeks on the chart, peaking at number three.
The recording by Hal Derwin was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 288. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on December 6, 1946, and lasted two weeks on the chart, peaking at number six. This was Derwin’s only charted hit.
In the rock era, the song was a major country-pop hit for The Browns in 1960, released as a single in March of that year. It went on to become a major top-ten hit on the US pop singles chart, peaking at number five, as well as number twenty on the country chart.
The song was performed under the name Luktar-Gvendur, by the Icelandic singer Björk on the album Gling-Gló, in 1990. On that album Björk teams up with the jazz trio of Guðmundur Ingólfsson: consisting of Guðmundur Ingólfsson on piano, Guðmundur Steingrímsson on drums and Þórður Högnason on bass. The album has become one of the classics of Icelandic contemporary pop music albums.
The song was sung by Gene Autry in the movie “Twilight on the Rio Grande” which first appeared in theaters on April 1, 1947.