Today being his feast day how about then we look at the most famous Joe song of them all – Hey Joe? In doing so, I guess I am being semi-sacrilegious here associating St. Joseph with some dude who shot his old lady for messing around on him. But then again, since St. Joseph really wasn’t Jesus’ father maybe he and the Hey Joe fella do have something in common after all.
Hey Joe was written supposedly by Billy Roberts in 1962. I say supposedly because despite Billy copyrighting the song as his composition, there are a couple other songwriters who may have been more responsible for its origins.
For instance, Billy’s former girlfriend, who was also a musician, wrote a song very similar and claims that Billy “stole” it from her. Listen to her video below and see what you think (click here and scroll down to read comments from Niela.) Sample follows:
I miss Joe Salvo coming into Buzzy’s Country Store. Every time he dropped in, I would always greet him with “Hey Joe” and this tune always ran thru my mind as I did so: