Willard Robison and Dedette Lee Hill’s plaintive song was introduced in 1938 by the orchestra of Larry Clinton, and it was one of the few occasions a song by Robison hit the charts:

Larry Clinton and His Orchestra (1938, Bea Wain, vocal, #4)

With the exception of “Old Folks” and “A Cottage for Sale,” Willard Robison’s compositional output is largely forgotten. Yet his tunes are charming and have been favorites of singers like Lee Wiley, Peggy Lee, and Mildred Bailey, and jazz artists like Jack Teagarden, who recorded a whole album of Robison material in 1962. It’s intriguing that “Old Folks” has become such a popular jazz ballad, clearly something its composer didn’t have in mind.

Robison’s background was rural Missouri, and all of his tunes deal with basic, folksy themes. He was heavily involved with radio and recording in the 1920s as a pianist, vocalist and bandleader. Although he recorded quite a number of his compositions, his twangy Missourian voice didn’t really find a niche with the public, and many of his tunes found better interpreters. (For example, Frank Sinatra’s version of “A Cottage for Sale” brings out the incredible sadness of the song.) Although Robison continued to compose into the 1950s, his nostalgic compositions rarely caught on with the public, who found solace in more upbeat “look for the silver lining” type of material. And because he never had a career writing for Broadway, he’s now barely mentioned in the histories of American song.

The lyrics for “Old Folks” were written by Dedette Lee Hill, the wife of composer Billy Hill, who was a folk-themed composer. (Hill composed a number of successful cowboy tunes such as “The Last Round-Up” and “Wagon Wheels.”) The cover of the sheet music shows a grandfatherly figure smoking a pipe, and, rather than being referred to as “grandpa,” he’s known as “Old Folks.” The lyrics paint a clear picture of the old fellow who “sits and whittles,” has his “napkin up under his chin” and “his yellow cob pipe.” In a melancholy twist, the last eight bars begin “someday there’ll be no more Old Folks.”