Memories of Mother and Dad

The Discography of American Historical Recordings dates it to July 18, 1952, at Castle Studio in Nashville, as Decca matrix NA 2784, credited to Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. The personnel are Monroe on vocal and mandolin, Jimmy Martin on guitar and lead vocal, Sonny Osborne on banjo, Ernie Newton on bass and Charlie Cline on fiddle. It was issued as Decca 28878 with "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" on the B-side, with the year given as 1954 by Wikipedia's discography and by Monroe Mandolin Camp, and no chart position is listed. Richard D. Smith, who says Monroe wrote it, calls it one of his true songs, and Monroe arguably the first great autobiographical singer-songwriter in country music history. Smith adds that Monroe, a visually impaired child, associated his mother with her singing and playing.

Mike Compton's Peghead Nation lesson gives the 1952 recording in F sharp. No cover, setlist.fm play, video or chart history was found, and our upload is presumably the 1952 studio recording. A story that Del McCoury was taken to the parents' graves in Rosine so he would get the lyrics right comes from a page that could not be opened, so it is left out.