"I was looking back to see ..."

Recently, I was reminded of a ditty my father sometimes half-sang when I was a young child, by which I mean as far back as can remember. I especially recall always being amused both by the structure of the lyrics and by the story they told.  

This is how I recall it (which is not exactly as the Internet has the lyrics) --

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[Oh] I was looking back to see if [she was] looking back to see

If I was looking back to see if [she was] looking back at me;

[She was] cute as [she] could be [there] looking back at me
And it was [very] plain to see that I'd enjoy [her] company.

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I had always assumed, I guess, that this was a ditty from his youth, perhaps in the manner of a folk song.  It never occurred to me that it might have been a commercially recorded song.  Recall, I was a child ... and anything Daddy did was amazing and unique.

Anyway, I googled the first line.  As best I could at first make out from the results, it was recorded by Buck Owens in 1972.  What!  I turned 15 in 1972, and I recalled it from much earlier in my life than that, nor would the lyrics have seemed so witty if first encountered at that age.

But, then, I happened to click a link which implied that it was recorded at least as early as 1954. Another site said it was *popularized* by Buck Owens in 1955. That makes more sense in the "story of my life".  My father was single and about 27 in 1954, 28 in 1955.

EDIT: When my father would sing his little ditties. he'd "keep time" by lightly clapping. He had terrible timing.