"The Cuckoo" is a traditional English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 folk song. It has been covered by many musicians in several different styles. An early notable recorded version was performed by Appalachian folk

Appalachian music

Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music , religious hymns, and African-American blues...

 musician Clarence Ashley

Clarence Ashley

"Tom" Clarence Ashley was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands...

 with a unique banjo tuning.

The title of the song has multiple variations, including The Coo-Coo, The Coo-Coo Bird, The Cuckoo Bird, and The Cuckoo Is A Pretty Bird.

Lyrics usually include the line (or a slight variation):

The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies.

According to Thomas Goldsmith of The Raleigh News & Observer, "The Cuckoo" is reportedly descended from an old folk ballad; it's an interior monologue where the singer "relates his desires — to gamble, to win, to regain love's affection."

The song is featured in the E.L. Doctorow book, The March

The March (novel)

The March is a 2005 historical fiction novel by E. L. Doctorow. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award/Fiction .-Plot summary:...

. A soldier suffering from a metal spike stuck in his head sings verses from the song.

Performers

Notable artists who have recorded The Cuckoo include:

Artist	Album
Anne Briggs Anne Briggs Anne Briggs is an English folk singer. Although she traveled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music...	Anne Briggs
Dave Alvin Dave Alvin Dave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....	Best of the Hightone Years
Clarence Ashley Clarence Ashley "Tom" Clarence Ashley was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands...	Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1-3
Joan Baez Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....	Live At Newport
The Be Good Tanyas The Be Good Tanyas The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian traditional music group, whose influences included folk, country, and bluegrass. The style of music they performed can be referred to as alt-country or Americana.-Career:...	Blue Horse Blue Horse Blue Horse is the debut album by The Be Good Tanyas, released in 2000.-Track listing:#"The Littlest Birds" – 4:06#"Broken Telephone" – 4:52#"Rain and Snow" – 3:59#"The Lakes of Pontchartrain" – 4:39#"Only in the Past" – 4:56...
Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...	Big Brother and the Holding Company
Buck 65 Buck 65 Richard Terfry , who uses the stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian experimental artist, MC and turntablist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, country, rock, folk and avant garde influences.Terfry is also a radio host,...	Porch
Shirley Collins Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE is a British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s...	Sweet England
Eric Darling Eric Darling Erik Darling was an American songwriter and a folk music artist. He was an important influence on the folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...	True Religion
Alfred Deller Alfred Deller Alfred George Deller CBE , was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularizing the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th Century....	The Art of Alfred Deller: The Counter-Tenor Legacy
Donovan Donovan Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...	Beat Cafe Beat Cafe Beat Cafe is the twenty-third studio album, and twenty-eighth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It is his first collection containing newly written songs since his 1996 album Sutras. Beat Cafe was released worldwide on August 24, 2004...
Dry Branch Fire Squad Dry Branch Fire Squad The Dry Branch Fire Squad is an old-time bluegrass band founded by Ron Thomason in 1976. The band has gone through many iterations in its existence. Thomason has been the one constant, serving as the band's MC, lead singer, and mandolin player...	Hand Hewn
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...	Live at the Gaslight 1962 Live at The Gaslight 1962 Live at The Gaslight 1962 is a single CD release including ten songs from early Bob Dylan performances at the Gaslight cafe in New York City's Greenwich Village...
Rory Gallagher Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948  – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...	Wheels Within Wheels Wheels Within Wheels Wheels Within Wheels is a blues-orientated acoustic rock album by Rory Gallagher. Featuring a range of acoustic styles including flamenco, skiffle and traditional Irish music, the album was compiled from lost recordings and outtakes by Gallagher's brother Donal and released posthumously...
Tim Eriksen Tim Eriksen Tim Eriksen is an American musician, musicologist, and professor. He is the leader of the band Cordelia's Dad, a solo artist, and was a performer and consultant for the award-winning soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain.-Cordelia's Dad:...  and Riley Baugus Riley Baugus Riley Baugus is an American old-time guitarist, banjo player, fiddler, singer and instrument builder from North Carolina.-Background and Career:...	Cold Mountain (soundtrack) Cold Mountain (soundtrack) Cold Mountain is the original soundtrack of the 2003 film Cold Mountain starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger.The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music and the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Soundtrack of the Year in 2003...
The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...	Heartaches and Harmonies Heartaches and Harmonies Heartaches and Harmonies is a compilation box-set CD by the rock and roll duo The Everly Brothers, released in 1994. It contains 103 songs spanning from a 1951 radio performance of "Don't Let Our Love Die" through 1990. It contains their early Cadence hits and a large representation of their...
Kelly Harrell Kelly Harrell Kelly Harrell was a country music singer in the 1920s. He recorded more than a dozen songs for OKeh and Victor Records and wrote songs which were recorded by other artists, including Jimmie Rodgers and Ernest Stoneman, in his own lifetime.-Biography:Harrell was born in Draper's Valley, Wythe...
Kristin Hersh Kristin Hersh Kristin Hersh is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she also continues to perform as lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock group Throwing Muses and the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave...	Hips and Makers Hips and Makers Hips and Makers is the debut solo album by Kristin Hersh, best known as the primary singer and songwriter of the band Throwing Muses. In contrast to Hersh's rock-oriented work with Throwing Muses, the album is primarily acoustic, with Hersh usually playing unaccompanied...
Ramblin' Jack Elliott Ramblin' Jack Elliott Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...	Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Hem Hem To hem a piece of cloth is to sew a cut edge in such a way as to prevent unraveling of the fabric.There are many different styles of hems of varying complexities. The most common hem...	Rabbit Songs Rabbit Songs Rabbit Songs is an album by Hem. It was released on June 11, 2002 on DreamWorks Records. The album was featured on NPR's All Songs Considered following its release, and the song "Half Acre" was later used in a Liberty Mutual commercial.-Track listing:...
Holy Modal Rounders Holy Modal Rounders The Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s...	Holy Modal Rounders 1 and 2
Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope (US band) Kaleidoscope was an American psychedelic folk and ethnic band who recorded 4 albums and several singles for Epic Records between 1966 and 1970.-Formation:...	Incredible!
The New Lost City Ramblers	Vol. 4
Osborne Brothers Osborne Brothers The Osborne Brothers, Sonny Osborne and Bobby Osborne , were an influential and popular bluegrass act during the 1960s and 1970s...	Voices In Bluegrass
Pentangle Pentangle (band) Pentangle are a British folk rock band with some folk jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s...	Basket of Light Basket of Light Basket of Light is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached #5 on the UK charts largely on the basis of the single "Light Flight" , the theme from BBC1's first colour drama series Take Three Girls.-A side:-B side:...
Peter, Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...	A Song Will Rise A Song Will Rise A Song Will Rise is the fourth studio album by the American folk music trio Peter, Paul & Mary, released in 1965 .- Track listing :# "When the Ship Comes In" # "Jimmy Whalen"# "Come and Go With Me"...
The Pine Hill Haints The Pine Hill Haints The Pine Hill Haints are a traditional bluegrass/folk/honky tonk/country band from Alabama, though the band members themselves describe their unique southern roots music as “Alabama Ghost Music.”...	Ghost Dance
Jean Ritchie Jean Ritchie Jean Ritchie is an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player.- Out of Kentucky :Abigail and Balis Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky had 14 children, and Jean was the youngest...	Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family
Hobart Smith Hobart Smith Hobart Smith was an American old-time musician. He was most notable for his appearance with his sister, Texas Gladden, on a series of Library of Congress recordings in the 1940s and his later appearances at various festivals during the folk music revival of the 1960s...	In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes
Taj Mahal Taj Mahal (musician) Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...	The Natch'l Blues
Richard Thompson	The Harry Smith Project Live Vol. 1
Doc Watson Doc Watson Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...  and Clarence Ashley Clarence Ashley "Tom" Clarence Ashley was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands...	Original Folkways Recordings: 1960–1962 Original Folkways Recordings: 1960–1962 Original Folkways Recordings: 1960-1962 is the title of a recording by Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley , released in 1994.-History:Banjoist and comedian Ashley and guitarist, singer Watson were recorded both in the studio and field recordings in the early 1960's. In the folk music revival of the...
Townes Van Zandt Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...	Roadsongs
Laura Veirs Laura Veirs Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter.Veirs was raised in Colorado, studied geology and Mandarin Chinese at Carleton College, worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.While growing up, she heard folk-country, classical, and pop...	Two Beers Veirs Two Beers Veirs Two Beers Veirs is a self released EP released by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs in 2008. It features covers of traditional folk songs, ranging from traditional ballads to an Elizabeth Cotten song.-Track listing:#"Spike Drivers Blues" – 2:44...