<P> Bill Monroe's 1941 and 1952 recordings, both under the title "In the Pines", were highly influential on later bluegrass and country versions . Recorded with his Bluegrass Boys and featuring fiddles and yodelling, they represent the "longest train" variant of the song, and omit any reference to a decapitation . However, as Eric Weisbard writes in a 1994 article in The New York Times, "...the enigmatic train is almost as frightening, suggesting an eternal passage:' I asked my captain for the time of day / He said he throwed his watch away ."' </P> <P> Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, recorded over half - a-dozen versions between 1944 and 1948, most often under the title, "Black Girl" or "Black Gal". His first rendition, for Musicraft Records in New York City in February 1944, is arguably his most familiar . Listed as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", this version appears on a number of Lead Belly "best - of" compilations, such as Absolutely the Best (2000). </P> <P> Another familiar version was recorded for Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, in New York City . Listed as "Black Girl" or "In the Pines", this version appears on compilations such as Where Did You Sleep Last Night--Lead Belly Legacy Vol. 1 (1996), and The Definitive Lead Belly (2008). </P> <P> Lead Belly is often said to be the author of the song, e.g. by Nirvana on their MTV Unplugged album in 1994 . However, Lead Belly didn't write the song, but reinterpreted it, as did other musicians before and after him . According to the American folklorist Alan Lomax, Lead Belly learned the song from someone's interpretation of the 1917 version compiled by Cecil Sharp, and by the 1925 phonograph recording . </P>

Where did you sleep last night original singer