Thursday Theme Song: this one's for Anni

In keeping with the flower theme from the Wednesday writing challenge at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, I'm featuring a song that's had a long and colorful history in the US, particularly in Hootin' Anni's Texas.

*

So, for Anni's musical meme 

Thursday Theme Song, 

I give you the version I remember best...of...

The Yellow Rose of Texas

(Mitch Miller, 1955, hear it here)

There's a yellow rose in Texas that I am going to see,
Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.

*

She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosa Lee,
But the yellow Rose of Texas Is the only girl for me.

*

Where the Rio Grande is flowing, and the starry skies are bright,
She walks along the river in the quiet summer night.
I know that she remembers when we parted long ago,
I promise to return and not to leave her so.

*

She's the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew;
You may talk about your Clementine, and sing of Rosa Lee,
But the yellow Rose of Texas is the only girl for me.

*

Now I'm going to find her, for my heart is full of woe,
We’ll do the things together we did so long ago
We'll play the banjo gaily, she’ll love me like before
And the yellow rose of Texas shall be mine forevermore.

*

Mitch Miller competed with the early years of Rock and Roll and did pretty well, thank you. This tune was on the charts for 19 weeks and even reached number one when "Rock Around the Clock" and "Ain't That a Shame" were also competing for air time. (Quotation from rhymebaron, YouTube.)

*

In 1984, country music artists Johnny Lee and Lane Brody recorded a song called The Yellow Rose. This song, which retained the original melody of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" but with new lyrics, was used as the title theme to a TV series also entitled The Yellow Rose and was a Number One country hit that year. I don't remember this one at all, nor am I familiar with the artists, so I'm sticking with the late Mitch Miller.