Put Me In Your Pocket

My grandparents sang quite a bit and one of the songs they sang was Put Me In Your Pocket. This song strikes a romantic chord in our family because Grandpa was sent off to war shortly after they were married. Fortunately, their story didn't end like the song.

Here's the lyrics:

Two lovers sat one evenin'
Beneath the pale moonlight
Tomorrow he was goin' away
Life's battle for to fight
He told her that he loved her
That he'd return someday
And take her for his lovin' wife
And then he heard her say

Put me in your pocket
So I'll be close to you
No more will I be lonesome
And no more will I be blue
And when we have to part dear
There'll be no sad adieu
For I'll be in your pocket
And I'll go along with you

That evenin' soon had vanished
The boy, he went away
And when at last he did return
For a happy wedding day
His sweetheart, she had vanished
To heaven she had gone
But she left to him a photograph
On which she wrote this song

Put me in your pocket
So I'll be close to you
No more will I be lonely
And no more will I be blue
And when we have to part, dear
There'll be no sad adieu
For I'll be in your pocket
And I'll go along with you

Depressing stuff, huh? Hank Locklin, of the Grand Ole Opry and Please Help Me, I'm Falling fame, recorded the song in 1966. But it turns out it wasn't original with him, with several other artists recording the song in 40's and 50's.

The song appears to have been written in the 1930's by W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. O'Daniel was a Democrat politician from Texas who had a storied career in radio, song writing, flour production, and politics. And yes, he is the inspiration for the character of the same name in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? which blurred the lines between fact and fiction in the depression era South.

Pappy O'Daniel's "Light Crust Doughboys" recorded the song as early as 1933 and again in 1936 as "Pappy O'Daniel and his Hillbilly Boys."