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Ace country/pop songwriter Billy Hill wrote THE LAST ROUND-UP [performance by Sons of the Pioneers] in 1933. That year, it became a smash with seven different versions. First recorded by tenor Joe Morrison with the big band of George Olsen (a version which soared to No. 1 and stayed there for nine weeks!), this mournful ballad was performed on Broadway in the "Ziegfeld Follies Of 1934" and featured in cowboy star Gene Autry's films The Singing Hill and Don't Fence Me In. Hit recordings include those by Guy Lombardo (No. 1), Don Bestor (No. 2), Victor Young (No. 3), Gene Autry (No.12) and Conrad Thibault (No. 18). The Sons of the Pioneers performed the tune for about ten years before recording the 1947 version included here.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LONELY (Have You Ever Been Blue) [performance by Patsy Cline & Jim Reeves] was written by Billy Hill and Peter DeRose in 1933 and popularized by dance band leader Ted Lewis, whose recording climbed to No. 8 on the charts. The song was revived in 1949 by "Texas Troubador" Ernest Tubb, who took the tune to No. 2 on the country charts. In 1981 "Have You Ever Been Lonely" returned to the country Top 10 in an unusual "electronic duet." Patsy Cline (who died in 1963) and Jim Reeves (who died in 1964) had recorded the song separately in the early '60s. By carefully combining parts of these two original recordings, famed producer Owen Bradley was able to create, in 1981, a "duet" between two deceased stars who had never actually sung together.
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