Song - I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven

I dreamed I was there in hillbilly heaven
Oh what a beautiful sight

Last night I dreamed I went to hillbilly heaven
And you know who greeted me at the gate?
The ole cowboy-philosopher himself, Will Rogers.
He said to me, he said "Tex, the Big Boss of the riders up here has asked me to kinda show you around.
Now, over yonder are a couple of your ole compadres
My, was I glad to see them,
Carson Robison and the Mississippi blue yodeler Jimmie Rodgers

I dreamed I was there in hillbilly heaven
Oh what a beautiful sight

He introduced me to Wiley Post
And he showed me the Hall of Fame with all the gold guitars and fiddles hanging on the walls.
Then he said, "Tex, step over this way, there’re two more of your friends I knowyou'll want to see, they're waitin' for you."
There they were standin' side by side and smilin' at me
Hank Williams and Johnny Horton.

I met all the stars in hillbilly heaven
Oh what a star-studded night

Then I asked him who else do you expect in the next, uh, say a hundred years?
He handed me a large book covered with star dust
Will called it the Big Tally Book
In it were many names and each name was branded in pure gold
I began to read some of them as I turned the pages:
Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, Eddy Arnold, Tennessee Ernie, JimmyDean, Andy Griffith, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter
Whaaaatttt??? Tex Ritter?

Oh, well, that's when I woke up, and I'm sorry I did
Because I dreamed I was there in hillbilly heaven
Oh what a beautiful sight

* * *

I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven is a song collected in Tex Ritter – Songs of the Golden West album. This song is quite hilarious.

The song described about Tex Ritter dreamed that he went to hillbilly heaven, a heaven that housed only western movie actors and singers.

There Tex Ritter met Will Rogers (1879-1935) at the gate of hillbilly heaven. Will Rogers then gave Tex Ritter a guided tour around the heaven where Tex met legends like Carson Robison (1890-1957), Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), Wiley Post (1898-1935) (checked Wikipedia. He was an aviation pioneer who died together with Will Rogers when their small airplane crashed), Hank Williams (1923-1953) and Johnny Horton (1925-1960)

The curious Tex Ritter then asked Will Rogers about other actors and singers who would end up in hillbilly heaven upon their death. There went another list of legendary names and the last one was TEX RITTER himself!!!

Tex Ritter woke up at that instance. He then continued to narrate embarrassingly that “I'm sorry I did because I dreamed I was there in hillbilly heaven”. That was a gem!

Text Ritter first recorded the song in 1961. This song only listed 6 legends in heaven. The LP album that I own contains this version. Please view this version of the song on YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDhsdFdtGY

This song continued to evolve as there were more western actors and singers passed away. I found another version on YouTube, performed live by Tex Ritter presumably during the late 60s. Here’s the link to this version on YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEL3GaEER_U&feature=related