[Fiji Hill]

I think that version of Patches was supposed to be the Bobby Vinton one, about the girl from the shanty town. It's a lovers suicide song.

The hit version was by Dickie Lee. It's one of my least favorite songs because the protagonist is such a craven coward. He won't defy his parents or sneak away to visit his lover, and when he hears of her death, he takes the chicken's way out (to use a '60's expression) and kills himself. He's also clearly not the brightest bulb on the chandelier, having chosen to take his own life based on hearsay.

That's why the "Patches" that I referred to was the one by Joseph Smith's Orchestra from 1919. I have a copy of that on a 78 rpm disc.

[Political Junkie Too]

It's not a big deal, it's just that it was included in a list of period songs from the mid-1950s.

They play it a lot on the Sirius XM 50s on 5 channel.

-PJ