Songs from the era of the true Pioneer Generation...

The two young musicians hired for a wedding were accepting song requests from the guests, many of whom were senior citizens. The duo -- a guy and a gal -- valiantly sang those that they had some familiarity with. But at least one, Angie's request for Jim Reeves' I Love You Because, was side-stepped, probably because they had never heard of it. I remarked that I knew quite a few of the songs of my parents' and older siblings' era.

Uncle then turned to me. "Have you heard of the song Green Eyes?" Oh, oh. No, I admitted (and I knew he was not referring to Coldplay's entirely different song of the same title).    

So I checked online.

 The Jimmy Dorsey composition, sung here by Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell, was the No 1 hit in 1941 and was still popular in 1953.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=SG&v=pbAlu3krd4w&hl=en-GB

Intrigued by Ms O'Connell's mellifluous voice, I found her 1939 rendition of All of Me (with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIy_UByP_JQ

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Actually, I only knew of one song from my father... Seven Lonely Days. Here's the Georgia Gibb (1953) version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=SG&hl=en-GB&v=RcNU2Dr5c5M

I learnt about many more "Pioneer Generation" songs from my brothers, because they kept school exercise books with song lyrics neatly written in. They also had dog-eared pocket-sized songbooks.

Here's the melancholic Red River Valley, sung by Gene Autry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31uGvYBj0j4

Then there was the original Rose, Rose I Love You (sung by Hue Lee?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PrvRhaoNN8

This English version is by Frankie Laine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Ew5jjDGd8

Finally, this last song here of my brothers' era also has "red" in it... Red Sails In The Sunset, as sung by the legendary Bing Crosby:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGIwSwAvp6o