“Sunny Side of the Mountain” is credited to Harry C. McAuliffe and Bobby Gregory. McAuliffe, born in Bluefield, West Virginia, in 1899, performed on radio as Big Slim, the Lone Cowboy; he joined WWVA in Wheeling in 1937 and stayed there for most of his career, and the song was printed in a 1946 folio of his favourite radio songs.
The first recording was made by Hank Snow, then billed as Hank, the Singing Ranger, on 20 December 1944 at Victor’s studio in Montreal, with Johnny Beaudoin on steel guitar and Teddy Miller on bass; Bluebird issued it as 55-3232. Hawkshaw Hawkins recorded it in October 1946 for King, which put it out on 78 as King 667 in 1947. McAuliffe recorded his own version around 1949, and again in 1961 for Big Slim the Lone Cowboy on the Canadian ARC label.
The singer is a man growing old who asks his darling not to forget him. He will be waiting, he says, on the hillside where the wild roses grow, on the sunny side of the mountain by the falling water. He asks her to remember the years they courted and the promises she made, and pleads with her to write and say where she is, since he still feels her love though their affair seems to be over.
Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper recorded it at Castle Studio in Nashville on 13 July 1951, with Stoney singing lead, and Columbia released it that September as the B side of “West Virginia Polka” (Columbia 20861). Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys sang it on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport on 23 August 1958. The Stanley Brothers cut it at King’s Cincinnati studio on 14 September 1959, Carter Stanley singing lead and Ralph Stanley tenor, with Bill Napier on mandolin and George Shuffler on bass; King issued it that December (King 5291).
Martin’s Decca studio recording was made on 13 August 1964 at Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, produced by Owen Bradley, with Grady Martin on guitar, Mike Miller on banjo, Vernon Derrick on mandolin, Junior Huskey on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. Decca released it in March 1965 as the B side of “20/20 Vision” (Decca 31748), and it opened his LP Sunny Side of the Mountain that June. Later recordings include those by the Osborne Brothers, Country Gazette, the Bluegrass Cardinals, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, and Dan Tyminski.
