The Tennessee Waltz is a classic country song written by Pee Wee King and Redd Steward in 1946.

The Tierney Brothers (Bob & Lennie) and me in the garage on a Thursday night. I asked the Brothers to play this gem of a tune for my extended Family and Friends in Knoxville and further points in Tennessee who are coming to visit their Great Grandson in Richmond this weekend. Thanks Bob and Lennie! Now, here's the history of this number from the Great American Songbook, according to Wiki:
" "Tennessee Waltz" is a popular country music song with lyrics by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King[4] written in 1946 and first released in January 1948. The song became a multimillion seller via a 1950 recording - as "The Tennessee Waltz" - by Patti Page.
All versions of the lyrics narrate a situation in which the persona has introduced his or her sweetheart to a friend who then waltzes away with her or him. The lyrics are altered for pronoun gender on the basis of the gender of the singer.
The popularity of "Tennessee Waltz" made it the fourth official song of the state of Tennessee in 1965.[5] Page's recording was inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.[6]
Composition and early recordings
Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, and their fellow Golden West Cowboys members were en route to Nashville "close to Christmas in 1946" when King and Stewart, who were riding in a truck carrying the group's equipment, heard Bill Monroe's new song "Kentucky Waltz" on the radio. Stewart had an idea to write a Tennessee waltz using the melody of King's theme song: "No Name Waltz", and wrote the lyrics on a matchbox as he and King thought up the words.[7] King and Stewart presented "Tennessee Waltz" to music publisher Fred Rose the next day, and Rose adjusted one line in the bridge of Stewart's lyric from "O the Tennessee waltz, O the Tennessee Waltz," to "I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz."
Almost a year passed before Pee Wee King's Golden West Cowboys were able to record "Tennessee Waltz". Their recording, made on December 2, 1947 at the RCA Victor Studio in Chicago[3] was released as Victor (20-2680) the following month.[8] 300,000 copies were sold for this release.[9]
Acuff-Rose Music, the publisher, did not immediately register a copyright to the song when it was presented to the company by King and Stewart and did not obtain the "consummate proof of ownership, and the key to protecting a songwriter's property" until February 1948.[10]
A version by Cowboy Copas, a former member of the Golden West Cowboys was released by King Records (King 696) two months later in March 1948.[11] 80,000 copies were sold.[9] ...
The most successful version of the song was recorded by Patti Page. In October 1950, an R&B version by Erskine Hawkins was released and reviewed on Billboard, and the reviewer Jerry Wexler brought the song to the attention of Page's manager, Jack Rael, and suggested that the song could be a hit for Page. Page and Rael listened to Hawkins' version, and proceeded to record the song quickly despite lacking an arrangement for the song.[14] Page cut "The Tennessee Waltz" in a November 1950 session in New York City with Rael conducting his orchestra: her vocal was cut multitracked with three voices, two voices, and a single voice, and Page herself selected the two-voice multitracked vocal on the released single.
Patti Page's recording was originally intended to serve as an obscure B-side to "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" (Catalog# 5534), as the label Mercury Records was more interested in the seasonal single at that time of the year. However, it was "The Tennessee Waltz" that became a hit.[14] After the initial pressings "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" was replaced as the B-side by "Long Long Ago".
"The Tennessee Waltz" entered the Pop Music chart of Billboard dated November 10, 1950 for a 30-week chart run, peaking at number one on the December 30, 1950 chart, and remained at number one for a total of nine weeks. A No. 2 C&W hit, "The Tennessee Waltz" became Page's career record.[15][16] On the Cash Box charts, "Tennessee Waltz" reached No. 1 on December 30, 1950, with the Patti Page, Jo Stafford, Guy Lombardo and Les Paul/Mary Ford versions being given a single ranking; as such "Tennessee Waltz" remained No. 1 in Cash Box through the February 3, 1951 chart. The song was also ranked No. 1 in England for multiple weeks.[17][18]
Page's recording was reported to have sold 2.3 million copies by May 1951.[9] Page's recording also inspired many other versions, and 4.8 million copies were sold for the various major versions combined, in addition to 1.8 million copies of sheet music sold, which made the song likely the most successful song in the history of pop music up to 1951 in the US.[19] In Japan, the song was the biggest-selling song ever as of 1974.[20]
The song was later included on Page's 1957 Mercury album This Is My Song. It was also re-recorded (in stereo, and with a different arrangement) for her 1966 Columbia Records album Patti Page's Greatest Hits.