Song written by John Loudermilk.He also wrote “tobacco road” (Nashville teens), “Ebony eyes”( Everly Brothers, “then you can tell me goodbye”(Casinos). Probably living large off the residuals.
First released in 1959 by Marvin Rainwater, first hit version by Don Fardon, an English Rocker, then the Raiders. Has been done by others since. Another good and touching Cherokee song is “Cherokee Bend” written and recorded by the late Gordon Lightfoot.
Damn, I never even HEARD Cherokee Bend and my own uncle DISCOVERED Gord when he was playing a bar on Spadina Avenue here. Thanks to Uncle Al, Gord got his first record deal!
My only excuse is the fact that Gord was such a prolific songwriter that even HE didn’t have a clue how many he wrote; during the 1970s he’d be high on meth, isolated in his cabin on Indian land, and binge-writing until he crashed. After recovering he’d picked out the dozen or so that met his own standards then burn the other hundred or so. The ones he kept were then his next album. He made a comeback tour after a health scare; his last show was less than a year before he died IIRC.