Posted on 05/19/2024 3:29:16 PM PDT by Twotone
~yesterday...I played America's Number One record from exactly three-quarters of a century ago - May 1949:
Listeners seemed to enjoy it, and many wanted to know more about it. I don't blame them. It's extremely catchy for a song with no consistent title: "Ghost Riders in the Sky"? "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"? "Riders in the Sky"? "Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)"? Or maybe you prefer just plain "Ghost Riders", or "Ghostriders", or half-a-dozen other variations over the years.
But, however you label it, it's a song unlike any other. It made its appearance seventy-five years ago, and shortly thereafter versions by Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby and Burl Ives chased Vaughn Monroe up the hit parade, to be followed over the decades by Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, the Doors, Blondie's Debbie Harry, the DNA Vibrators, and the German heavy metal band Die Apokalyptischen Reiter. But, with all due respect to those fine vocal artistes, the song's melodrama is made for a big-voiced baritone like Vaughn Monroe. On May 14th 1949 he and his orchestra hit Number One on the Billboard chart, and America was gripped by one of the spookiest tales ever to haunt the jukebox:
An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
A-plowin' through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw
Yippee-yi-yay, yippee-yi-yo
The ghost herd in the sky...
A ghost herd in the sky? Where did that come from? From a guy called Stan Jones - and it was, as they say on the TV movies, based on a true story.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Have to admit this was my favorite version until I heard the Blues Brothers one. đź‘Ť
Grampa Jones introduces Roy Clark and Glen Campbell on Hee Haw
> I’ll have to check Collins version... <
Here ya go. I’m not saying it’s the best version. I am saying it’s the best female version.
https://youtu.be/lEG8FWpEDPY?si=x6j1W3kmamHhZgOu
https://youtu.be/x7ZLnK_6NiU?si=hLbO0yW-p_pB5L96
Best version ever from Dallas Texas
Their club on greenvillle ave
Definitely huge influence on Allman Brothers and Skynyrd. They were the beginning of Southern Rock.
If by “Outlaws,” you mean “the Highwaymen” (Cash, Nelson, Jennings and Kristofferson, yes.
By the Highwaymen. Love the guitar riffs.
Over 25 posts and Duane Eddy doesn’t even get an honorable mention.
“(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend” was a cowboy-styled country/western song written in 1948 by American songwriter, film and television actor Stan Jones.
This song was re-recorded many times, and changed a little, by a number of different groups. Names like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and was even used by professional wrestler “Hangman” Adam Page, who first used it at the All Elite Wrestling Revolution pay-per-view event on March 5, 2023.
A number of versions were crossover hits on the pop charts in 1949, the most successful being by Vaughn Monroe. The ASCAP database lists the song as “Riders in the Sky” (title code 480028324), but the title has been written as “Ghost Riders”, “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, and “A Cowboy Legend”. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as the greatest Western song of all time.
Here’s an interesting version you might not have seen and/or heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkPn3aZ31Fo
wy69
“If by “Outlaws,” you mean “the Highwaymen” (Cash, Nelson, Jennings and Kristofferson, yes.”
Mmm….no: I mean the “Green Grass and High Tides” Outlaws.
RLTW
The inspiration for “Riders on the Storm”
I like the Burl Ives and Johnny Cash versions, but there are a lot of good ones out there.
Slightly related:
Concrete Blonde - Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69BozyMnVSg&list=RD69BozyMnVSg&start_radio=1
Good one. Even with the missing “yippi”! ;-)
My favorite version: The first time I heard it: Sung by the Camp Counselor at Summer camp in 1961, while we were on a horseback accessed camp-out, right after the scary, believable, ghost story about our camping spot.
He was a good singer and guitar player.
I also had it on the Sons of the Pioneers album. I like that version too.
Ah yes, the theme song for the AC-130H Spectre. The new AC-130J is the “Ghostrider”. Here is a tribue to all versions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvwEP8Vh5kwith the song. Enjoy.
Just....WOW!
A good one for the 3-String Cigar Box Guitar!
I guess it’s just me, but I’m a Burl Ives guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2klh2cTa_Q
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