Silver Threads Among the Gold

"Silver Threads Among the Gold", first copyrighted in 1873, was a popular song in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1930, an Associated Press story published in The New York Times gave some background on the writing of the lyrics of the song: "Silver Threads Song Traced to Poet’s ‘Re-Hash’ on Order" Shiocton, Wis. (AP).—The love ballad, “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” which has stirred the hearts of more than one generation, was not the inspiration of an aging poet but a “re-hash” produced on order.

Rexford first heard the song when a company of Oneida Indians gave a concert in Shiocton, Wisconsin, and sang it there.

[4] Later 20th-century recordings of the song include those of John McCormack, Bing Crosby (recorded November 8, 1947),[5] Jerry Lee Lewis (1956 and 1973), Georg Ots (in Estonian and Finnish, 1958), Tapio Rautavaara (in Finnish, 1967) and Jo Stafford with Paul Weston's Orchestra and the Gaslight Singers (1969).

In 1960, Pat Boone released a new-lyrics version of this song, titled "Words"[6] and credited to James Cavanaugh and C.