
Louisiana Fairy Tale

"Louisiana Fairy Tale" (or "Louisiana Fairytale") is a song written in 1935 by Haven Gillespie, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish and J. Fred Coots, and was originally popularized by Fats Waller. The song opens with a clarinet melody backed by piano, followed by a muted trumpet bridge and finishes out with lyrics accompanied by the trumpet.
The clarinet sound was used as the theme for the television series "This Old House" from 1979 to 2002. The song was part of a mid-week New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival event in 2010 with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and My Morning Jacket, where the entire piece was performed acoustically and without the use of electricity. The song has been performed by many artists, including Tom Sancton.
In 1990, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington presented Louisiana congresswoman Lindy Boggs with "three gifts" from the collection of the Library of Congress, including "a facsimile of sheet music for a 1935 piece, 'Louisiana Fairy Tale,' accompanied by a cassette of the music with Fats Waller on piano and vocal".