The original provenance of this tune is in Québécois repertoire, where it was recorded in 1929 by Sotère Mongrain (fiddle) and Ida Mongrain (piano) under the title "Reel de St-Tite." The tune was also in Maritime fiddler Don Messer's "Down-East" repertoire, as Rambler's Hornpipe. The Old French title supposedly came from a remark by an old Vermont fiddler who was asked its title and responded that it was "just an old French tune."
This tune was known earlier by other names, including Quadrille de Chez Nous (1929), and it may be based on an 1823 opera tune Home Sweet Home. Glise is not itself a French word but may derive from glisse, meaning to slide or glide. It may be a reference to sledding or skating.
