According to Roud and Bishop:[1] "Judging by the number of versions gathered in the major manuscript collections and later sound recordings, this song has been a firm favourite with singers in Britain, Ireland and North America for a long time, the wording varies surprisingly little across the English versions and the story is always the same, and these probably derive from nineteenth-century broadside printings, of which there are many.
One day I was looking o'er my father's castle wall I spied all the boys a-playing at the ball My own true love was the flower of them all He's young, but he's daily growing.
An even older version in a book "A North Countrie Garland, edited by James Maidment," published in 1824, includes the lyrics of the song "The Young Laird of Craigston."
I'll send your love to college all for a year or two And then in the meantime he will do for you; I'll buy him white ribbons, tie them round his bonny waist To let the ladies know that he's married.
The words may have been based on the 17th-century wedding of Lord Craigston, John Urquhart to Elizabeth Innes and her subsequent marriage to Alexander Brodie in 1635.
British composer Patrick Hadley wrote The Trees So High, a "symphonic ballad" on a version of the tune and lyrics for chorus, baritone solo, and orchestra.
Dozens of authentic field recordings have been made of the song,[2] including a 1907 phonograph recording of David Penfold, the landlord of the Plough Inn at Rusper in Sussex, made by the English composer and folk music collector Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The song was also recorded by Pentangle on their Sweet Child album, Steeleye Span on Now We Are Six (as "Long-A-Growing"), and by Angelo Branduardi (Italian version "Gli Alberi Sono Alti") on his La Luna in 1975.
An a cappella version appears on Brenda Wootton's 1975 album Starry Gazey Pie, sung in two-part harmony with Robert Bartlett.
This song was released again as "The Trees, They Do Grow High" by the California-based folk band Golden Bough on their self-named album in 1981.
In 2002 the song was recorded under the title "Daily Growing" by the Irish band Altan, with Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh singing and Paul Brady contributing as guest singer, on the album The Blue Idol.
In 2012, Merrymouth, a folk band led by Simon Fowler of Ocean Colour Scene recorded the song for their eponymous album.
The Voice of the People includes two recordings by traditional singers: The Bonny Boy sung by Fred Jordan on Volume 3: O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green – Tragic Ballads, and Young But Growing sung by Mary McGarvey on Good People, Take Warning : Ballads by British and Irish Traditional Singers.
Irish folk singer Cara Dillon made a free arrangement of the story called "He's Young But He's Growing".