Australian country music link Australia's vast distances. Isolation and loneliness of life in the Australian bush has been another theme. For much of its history, Australia's bush music belonged to an oral and folkloric tradition, and was only later published in print in volumes such as Banjo Paterson's "Old Bush Songs", in the 1890s. Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National anthem, is a quintessential early Australian country song, influenced more by Celtic folk ballads than by American Country and Western music. The lyrics were composed by the poet Banjo Paterson in 1895. This strain of Australian country music, with lyrics focusing
Waltzing Matilda called "Matilda". In 1995, it was reported that at least 500 artists in Australia and overseas had released recordings of "Waltzing Matilda", and according to Peter Burgis of the National Film and Sound Archive, it is "one of the most recorded songs in the world". Among the artists and bands who have covered the song include Rod Stewart, Chubby Checker, Liberace, Harry Belafonte, Bill Haley and the Comets, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Helmut Lotti, Wilf Carter (Montana Slim), the Irish Rovers, and Burl Ives, The Swingle Singers and the Red Army Choir. Jimmie Rodgers had a US#41 pop hit with