Burl Ives Parlayed His Talent As A Folksinger Into A Wide Ranging Career As A Radio Personality And Stage And Screen Actor. After Spending His Early 20s Traveling The Country As An Itinerant Singer Burl Ives Moved To New York City in 1937. By The End Of 1938 He Had Made His Broadway Debut And He Also Sang Folk Songs In Greenwich Village Clubs.

Burl Ives In 1940 He BeGain To Appear Regularly On Radio Including His Own Show The Wayfarin' Stranger On CBS.

Burl Ives Made His First Records For Stinson A Small Folk Label And Then Was Signed Tto Decca A major Label. He Made His Movie Debut In Smoky In 1946. In 1948 His First Book Wayfaring Stranger Was Published.

Burl Ives In 1949 Had His First Chart Hit With Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly. The same year He Moved To Columbia Records. With The Advent Of The Long Playing Record Burl Ives Suddenly Had A Flurry Of LP Releases From His Three Labels The Wayfaring Stranger On Stinson And Three Volumes Of Ballads & Folk Songs. Folk Songs Dramatic and Humorous And Christmas Day In The Morning On Decca And Wayfaring Stranger And Return Of The Wayfaring Stranger, More Folk Songs, American Hymns, The Animal Fair And Mother Goose Songs On Columbia.

Burl Ives Also Recorded A Series Of Albums For Encyclopedia Brittanica Films Under The Overall Title Historical America In Song. In 1951 He Hit The Top Ten With On Top Of Old Smoky.

Burl Ives In 1952 Returned To Decca While Continuing To Publishing Books And To Act On Broadway And In The movies And Made A Series Of Albums That Included Coronation Concert, The Wild Side of Life, Men, Down to the Sea in Ships, In the Quiet of the Night, Burl Ives Sings for Fun, Songs of Ireland, Old Time Varieties, Captain Burl Ives' Ark, Australian Folk Songs, And Cheers And All Were Released In The Second Half Of The 1950s.

Burl Ives In 1961 Oriented Himself Toward Country Music And That Made A hit A Little Bitty Tear And Burl Ives Made The Top Ten In Both The Pop And Country Charts.