The movies have served as a musical education to me. They have constantly broadened and expanded my musical taste and knowledge and continue to do so. From the cowboy music of The Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to the classical music of Fantasia to the musical standards of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals to the rock and roll of Elvis Presley and concert films like The Last Waltz (1978) to jazz legends like Miles Davis, Paul Whiteman and Louis Armstrong to crooners like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, films have helped introduce me to so much great music. These Movie Music Monday posts I hope will give you some of the same experience the movies have given me.
Today's song is a cowboy classic, I'm an Old Cowhand. This is a fun and often funny little novelty number that has become a staple of cowboy music. The song was introduced in the feature film, Rhythm on the Range (1936). Preforming the song in the movie was an all star line-up including Bing Crosby, Louis Prima, The Sons of the Pioneers, Matha Ray, Leonid Kinskey and Bob Burns. This song was specifically written for this movie by Johnny Mercer. Fans of movie music should be familiar with Johnny since he wrote s or co-wrote such classic movie songs as I'm Old Fashioned, You Were Never Lovelier, On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, Charade, One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) and Hooray For Hollywood. This song was inspired by a trip across the U.S.A. write his wife and how he was amused by the sight of cowboys in full cowboy garb driving cars instead of riding horses. The satirical lyrics of this song also helped him vent his frustration with his not having made it in Hollywood up to this time. Of course that would change
The song would return to the movies when Gene Autry and Mary Lee sang it in the feature film, Back in the Saddle (1941).
Roy Rogers (who had previously been a member of the Sons of the Pioneers and appeared as such in Rhythm on the Range (including the scene that introduced this song) sang it in the movie, King of the Cowboys (1943).
The same year that Rythym on the Range was released both Bing Crosby and The Sons of the Pioneers, did solo versions of the song.
Also in 1936 the overlooked country music pioneer Carlson Robison did a version of this song.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song in 1945.
Jazz saxophonist, Sonny Rollins did an instrumental version of this song on his 1957 album, Way Out West.
The Mills Brothers did an excellent version in 1961.
When The Charlie Daniels Band did an album of cowboy songs, By the Light of the Moon (1997).
The movies have served as a musical education to me. They have constantly broadened and expanded my musical taste and knowledge and continue to do so. From the cowboy music of The Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to the classical music of Fantasia to the musical standards of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals to the rock and roll of Elvis Presley and concert films like The Last Waltz (1978) to jazz legends like Miles Davis, Paul Whiteman and Louis Armstrong to crooners like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, movies have helped introduce me to so much great music. These Movie Music Monday posts I hope will give you some of the same experience the movies have given me.
Today's song is South of the Border. In Gene Autry's autobiography, he remembered how he first became acquainted with this song. He wrote, "Neither a prison in Nashville nor an airfield in Dallas was the oddest place I ever found a song. That happened during my prewar tour of the British Isles in 1939. Two young Englishmen, Michael Carr and Jimmy Kennedy, visited my dressing room in Dublin between shows. They had written a song with me in mind and hoped I would record it. The song was 'South of the Border.' They had never been to Mexico and had seen it only in my films (which meant they were probably looking at Arizona). How two Englishmen came to write a song about a country they had never seen, for a movie cowboy they had never met is a question I wish I could answer. But 'South of the Border' sold over a million copies." (Autry, 27). Later in the book Gene wrote, "As luck would have it one of the things I brought back was the song written for me by the two British lads Michael Carr and Jimmy Kennedy - 'South of the Border.' There was even time for a script to be written and for the film of the same name to become our last release for 1939." (Autry, 74). The following is an exhibitor's review of that movie from The Motion Picture Herald, "South of the Border: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette - Here is one exhibitor who is thanking the Almighty that Republic discovered Gene Autry and 'South of the Border is the answer to our prayer. We played it three days to sell out business. Never saw the like of it. Don't know where they came from. Wish we had played it a week. Any exhibitor who hasn't played this one has missed the boat. Did more business than 'Snow White' by $175 in three days against four days. More than 'Boys Town,' 'Jesse James' and 'Kentucky' and that's something. We're going to try it book it for a return showing in a couple months. I didn't think it was possible to do business on this picture like we did. Were the creditors tickled! We gave it a big campaign in advance and it paid; yes sir! If any of our good friends out west haven't played this, do so. - Harold Rankin, Plaza Theatre, Tilbury, Ontario, Canada. General Patronage."
Gene wasn't the only one to record this song in 1939. Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, also did their version.
Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra also recorded the song in 1939, having one of their biggest hits.
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys recorded one of my favorite versions of the song in 1948.
Frank Sinatra had a hit off the song in 1953.
Mel Tormé performed the song on his 1959 album, ¡Olé Tormé!: Mel Tormé Goes South of the Border with Billy May.
Pasty Cline did a version for her 1961 album Showcase.
Jazz musician Herb Alpert used the song as the title track for a 1964 album.
Chuck Berry did a cover of the song on his self titled 1975 album. Chuck changed the lyrics more than little.
Willie Nelson recorded this song twice for his 1988 album What a Wonderful World.
With its vividly haunting lyrics and melody, Ghost Riders in the Sky is one of the all time great cowboy songs. This song was written by Stan Jones in 1948 when he was still a forest ranger writing songs on the side. He often stated that this song was based off a ghost story a cowboy had told him when he was 12. Many believe the story he was told was the story of Stampede Mesa. Here is what Texas folklorist, J. Frank Dobie wrote about the legend.
Early in the fall of ’89 an old cowman named Sawyer came through with a trail herd of fifteen hundred head of steers, threes and fours. While he was driving across Dockum Flats one evening, some six or seven miles east of the mesa, about forty-odd head of nester cows came bawling into the herd. Closely flanking them, came the nester, demanding that his cattle be cut out of the herd. Old Sawyer, who was ‘as hard as nails,’ was driving short handed; he had come far; his steers were thin and he did not want them ‘ginned’ about any more. Accordingly, he bluntly told the nester to go to hell. The nester was pretty nervy, and seeing that his little stock of cattle was being driven off, he flared up and told Sawyer that if he did not drop his cows out of the herd before dark he would stampede the whole bunch. “At this Sawyer gave a kind of dry laugh, drew out his six shooter, and squinting down it at the nester, told him to ‘vamoose.’ Nightfall found the herd straggling up the east slope of what on the morrow would be christened by some cowboy Stampede Mesa. Midnight came, and with scarcely half the usual night guard on duty, the herd settled down in peace. But the peace was not to last. True to his threat, the nester, approaching from the north side, slipped through the watch, waved a blanket a few times, and shot his gun. He did his work well. All of the herd except about three hundred head stampeded over the bluff on the south side of the mesa, and two of the night herders, caught in front of the frantic cattle that they were trying to circle, went over with them. “Sawyer said but little, but at sunup he gave orders to bring in the nester alive, horse and all. The orders were carried out, and when the men rode up on the mesa with their prisoner, Sawyer was waiting. He tied the nester on his horse with a rawhide lariat, blindfolded the horse, and then, seizing him by the bits, backed him off the cliff. There were plenty of hands to drive Sawyer’s remnant now. Somewhere on the hillside they buried, in their simple way, the remains of their two comrades, but they left the nester to rot with the pile of dead steers in the canyon. And now old cowpunchers will tell you that if you chance to be about Stampede Mesa at night, you can hear the nester calling his cattle, and many assert that they have seen his murdered ghost, astride a blindfolded horse, sweeping over the headlands, behind a stampeding herd of phantom steers. Herd bosses are afraid of those phantom steers, and it is said that every herd that has been held on the mesa since that night has stampeded, always from some unaccountable cause (Dobie, J. Frank, 1924, p.282-283)Stan Jones himself was the first to record this song and did so in 1948. Here is that version. You may notice it uses a faster tempo and a stronger beat than later verisions. This was done to create a sound simular to that of stampeding cattle.
However the song would gain more fame when Burl Ives recorded it in 1949.
Also in 1949 Vaughn Monroe would take the song to number 1.
Of course this is a Movie Music Monday and thus we come to my favorite version of the song. Gene Autry recorded this song for Columbia records in 1949 as well as using it as the title song of one of his best movies, Riders in the Sky (1949). The scene where Gene sings this song is not only a great bit of music but a masterful piece of visual filmmaking, that definitely stood out compared to what audiences had come to except from B westerns. Much of this had to do with the fact that the film was directed by John English, who directed some of Autry's best movies (including my favorite, Rim of the Cannon (1949)) as well as what is considered to be the best movie serial of all time, The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). Gene's voice is also completely perfect for this song. A review of the movie in The Showman's Trade Review stated, "'Riders in the Sky' is superior both in entertainment and technical values to the usual western in its class and is probably the best in the series. The song, Ghost Riders in the Sky, is skillfully woven into the story and the ghost riders are shown with some very capable photography and artwork displayed in this piece."
Box Office Barometer, 1949
This song would return to the movies decades later with a truly bizarre scene in Blues Brothers 2000 (1998).
The song again returned to the movies when the alternative rock band did a version for the movie Ghost Rider (2007).
I also love Johnny Cash's version of this song. Johnny recorded it in 1979 as part of his Silver album. It went to number 2 on the charts.
In 1980 Johnny performed this song on The Muppet Show (1976-1981).
The band, Outlaws turned this into a full on rock song in 1980.
This song also inspired The Doors' 1971 song, Riders of the Strom.
There have been more versions of this song than I can possibly post on this blog what is your favorite.
Welcome to the first Movie Music Monday. Each Monday I will post a video of a song I like being performed in a movie. Today's song is The Shorty George from the movie You Were Never Lovelier (1942). The song is performed by Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth and Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra and written by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer.
