Butler, retired to Lake City Florida in 1973 and has just recently received a gold record to commemorate the song's sales of more than 1 MILLION COPIES!
Butler cut the song in February 1947 for Decca Records in Hollywood Calif., just 30 days after his marriage to wife, Iva.
Fred Glickman, Butler's manager, wrote the song with two other men and brought the tune to Butler half-finished to test the melody against the singer's voice.
Butler sang a few lines to the delight of Decca President Dave Capp.
"That's a hit if I ever heard one," Capp said.
"Let's schedule a quick session and get it on wax!"
Butler and Glickman jotted down some more lyrics during a lunch break which Butler hastily arranged into a hit format that was recorded before dinner that night.
Legendary guitarist Merle Travis and accordionist Ralph Cornish, the best man at Butler's wedding, provided harmonies and instrumentation behind Butler's guitar and vocals. Glickman, a far-out character who liked to experiment with different sounds and gimmicks, sawed a 2X4 board in half and smacked it together in front of a microphone at intervals during the song.
"It sounds just like you were cracking a whip," Butler said.
Decca released the song 10 days later with company's phones ringing off the hook from radio stations and stores ordering copies of the song.
The company put it's pressing plants in Hollywood and New York into round-the-clock production as "MULE TRAIN" toped the Hit Parade and stayed there for a year!
Decca translated the song into 50 languages so audiences around the globe could enjoy Butler's song. Frankie Lane and Tennessee Ernie Ford also recoreded hit versions of the song!
Butler's lifelong love of the dobro, a form of lap-steel guitar invented to produce volume before the invention of electrical amplification, came from hearing Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts of Acuff's band in 1936.
"I loved the sound of that thing so much it just took me over." Butler said.
Butler's father retrieved his son from the home when the boy was 12. His stepmother would become a major force pushing the boy's music!
When Butler was 16, the stepmother encouraged him to enter an amateur contest put on by a local radio station every Saturday night.
Butler passed an audition and so wowed the crowd with his rendition of the gospel classic Further Along that local star Snuffy Jenkins let the boy sing with his band, The Black Draught Hillbillies.
The Hillbillies played live on radio every day a noon and obtained special permission from school authorities for Butler to get an hour off for lunch to appear on the show.
Classmates were jealous at first but warmed back up when they saw their boyhood pal was unfazed by his success, which included $10 per week--a fortune in Depression-ridden 1937 South Carolina!
Butler bought lunches for less-fortunate schoolmates who could barely muster the nickel it took to buy a hamburger, soft drink or hot dog.
Butler's big break came when Gene Autry and Smiley Burnett came to town for a show at the Ritz, a cowboy movie hall.
Autry heard 18 year old Butler on the radio and hired the boy on the spot to play dobro.
"I left that night," Butler recalls.
Burnett, who played "the frog" side kick in Autry's cowboy flicks, gave Butler the stagename "Cy."
"He called me that because I was 'sighing' for a job" Butler said.
Butler toured and recorded records and movie soundtracks with Autry,The Singing Cowboy, for seven years before signing with Decca as a solo artist in early 1947 and riding his "MULE TRAIN" to fame!
At last report Lake City, Florida audiences were able to hear Butler on Friday nights at Chief Willie's in Lake City.
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