The Old Spinning Wheel: A Song History

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“The Old Spinning Wheel” is not a folk song but a Tin Pan Alley number, published in New York in 1933 by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. as a song for voice and piano, with a cover picturing a couple seated atop a spinning wheel.[1] Its sentimental lyric dwells on a neglected spinning wheel left standing in a parlor.[1] The composer, Billy Hill (1899–1940), was a Boston native who studied violin at the New England Conservatory before spending years in the American West as a cowhand and in other jobs, then settling in New York as a songwriter around 1930.[2][3] He is better remembered for western-flavored songs such as “The Last Round-Up” and “Empty Saddles,” and for “The Glory of Love.”[2][3]

Watercolor of a young woman in old-fashioned dress seated at a spinning wheel beside a cupboard

Thomas Eakins, Homespun, watercolor, 1881. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

Ray Noble and His Orchestra recorded the song in 1933, and their version appeared in the United States on Victor 24357, a 78 now held by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.[4] The SecondHandSongs database lists it as the first recording, dates the session to May 1933, and names Al Bowlly as the uncredited vocalist; it also lists later versions by jazz bands and other singers.[5] The same database credits western swing bandleader Spade Cooley with an instrumental version on his 1950 album Plays Billy Hill for Dancing.[6]

The song has since found a second home among string-band players as an instrumental. The lesson site Peghead Nation describes it as a fixture of the bluegrass instrumental repertoire and teaches it on octave mandolin in D,[7] and the North Atlantic Tune List, a learning collection for traditional players, presents it as a two-step in D.[8]

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Sources

  1. Mississippi State University Libraries, Charles H. Templeton Sr. Sheet Music Collection: "The Old Spinning Wheel" by Billy Hill.
  2. Wikipedia: "Billy Hill (songwriter)".
  3. American Music Preservation: "The Last Round-Up: A Tribute to Billy Hill".
  4. Smithsonian National Museum of American History: "Hang Out the Stars in Indiana; The Old Spinning Wheel" (Victor 24357).
  5. SecondHandSongs: "The Old Spinning Wheel" by Ray Noble and His Orchestra.
  6. SecondHandSongs: "The Old Spinning Wheel" by Spade Cooley and His Band.
  7. Peghead Nation: "New Lessons, Tunes, and Techniques for June 2025".
  8. North Atlantic Tune List: "The Old Spinning Wheel".