Showing posts with label Marty Robbins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marty Robbins. Show all posts

Sunday, November 12, 2023

The Top 200 Country Songs of All Time

Country Music:

Top 200 Songs

The DMDB’s list of the top 100 country songs of all time was created by aggregating 90 best-of lists focused on country songs. This included awards for Best Song and/or Single from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, the Grammys. See the resources at the bottom of this page. This was first posted on the DMDB Facebook page on April 3, 2011 and then on the blog on August 28, 2011.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Patsy Cline “Crazy” (1961)
2. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980)
3. Tammy Wynette “Stand by Your Man” (1968)
4. Garth Brooks “Friends in Low Places” (1990)
5. Willie Nelson “Always on My Mind” (1982)
6. Randy Travis “Forever and Ever, Amen” (1987)
7. Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line” (1956)
8. Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” (1963)
9. Lee Ann Womack with Sons of the Desert “I Hope You Dance” (2000)
10. Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (1953)

11. Marty Robbins “El Paso” (1959)
12. Charlie Daniels Band “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979)
13. Roger Miller “King of the Road” (1965)
14. Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” (1978)
15. Tim McGraw “Live Like You Were Dying” (2004)
16. Lonestar “Amazed” (1999)
17. Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
18. Conway Twitty “Hello Darlin’” (1970)
19. Dolly Parton “Jolene” (1973)
20. Loretta Lynn “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1970)

21. Garth Brooks “The Dance” (1990)
22. Merle Haggard “Mama Tried” (1968)
23. Patsy Cline “I Fall to Pieces” (1961)
24. Dolly Parton “I Will Always Love You” (1974)
25. Glen Campbell “Rhinestone Cowboy” (1975)
26. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now” (2009)
27. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” (1955)
28. Merle Haggard “Okie from Muskogee” (1969)
29. Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats” (2006)
30. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson “Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978)

31. Charlie Rich “Behind Closed Doors” (1973)
32. Jeannie C. Riley “Harper Valley P.T.A.” (1968)
33. Tennessee Ernie Ford “Sixteen Tons” (1955)
34. Willie Nelson “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” (1975)
35. Alan Jackson “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” (2001)
36. Charley Pride “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” (1971)
37. Kitty Wells “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels” (1952)
38. Waylon Jennings “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” (1977)
39. Ernest Tubb “Walking the Floor Over You” (1941)
40. Ray Price “For the Good Times” (1970)

41. Hank Williams “Hey, Good Lookin’” (1951)
42. Sammi Smith “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (1971)
43. Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton “Islands in the Stream” (1983)
44. Jim Reeves “He’ll Have to Go” (1959)
45. Lynn Anderson “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” (1970)
46. Billy Ray Cyrus “Achy Breaky Heart” (1992)
47. Faith Hill “Breathe” (1999)
48. Alan Jackson “Chattahoochee” (1992)
49. Eddy Arnold “Make the World Go Away” (1965)
50. Hank Williams “Lovesick Blues” (1949)

51. George Strait “Amarillo by Morning” (1983)
52. Faron Young “Hello Walls” (1961)
53. Florida Georgia Line with Nelly “Cruise” (2012)
54. Waylon Jennings with Willie Nelson “Good Hearted Woman” (1975)
55. Shania Twain “You’re Still the One” (1998)
56. Ray Price “Crazy Arms” (1956)
57. John Denver “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971)
58. Buck Owens “Act Naturally” (1963)
59. The Carter Family “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)” (1935)
60. Lee Greenwood “God Bless the U.S.A.” (1984)

61. LeAnn Rimes “Blue” (1996)
62. Roy Acuff & the Smoky Mountain Boys “Wabash Cannonball” (1938)
63. Glen Campbell “Wichita Lineman” (1968)
64. Crystal Gayle “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” (1977)
65. Tim McGraw with Faith Hill “It’s Your Love” (1997)
66. Reba McEntire “Fancy” (1991)
67. Deanna Carter “Strawberry Wine” (1996)
68. Johnny Horton “The Battle of New Orleans” (1959)
69. Brooks & Dunn “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” (1991)
70. Hank Snow “I’m Moving On” (1950)

71. Martina McBride “Independence Day” (1993)
72. Johnny Paycheck “Take This Job and Shove It” (1977)
73. The Oak Ridge Boys “Elvira” (1981)
74. Don Gibson “Oh Lonesome Me” (1958)
75. Ronnie Milsap “Smokey Mountain Rain” (1980)
76. Dixie Chicks “Wide Open Spaces” (1998)
77. Willie Nelson “On the Road Again” (1980)
78. John Michael Montgomery “I Swear” (1993)
79. Patsy Cline “Sweet Dreams of You” (1963)
80. Dolly Parton “Coat of Many Colors” (1971)

81. Patsy Cline “Walkin’ After Midnight” (1957)
82. Keith Whitley “When You Say Nothing at All” (1988)
83. Alan Jackson “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” (1991)
84. Johnny Cash “A Boy Named Sue” (live, 1969)
85. Buck Owens “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” (1965)
86. Bill Monroe “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1947)
87. Freddy Fender “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (1975)
88. The Statler Brothers “Flowers on the Wall” (1965)
89. Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
90. Jack Greene “There Goes My Everything” (1966)

91. Sons of the Pioneers “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” (1934)
92. The Carter Family “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
93. Leroy Van Dyke “Walk on By” (1961)
94. Tammy Wynette “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” (1968)
95. Taylor Swift “Love Story” (2008)
96. Faith Hill “This Kiss” (1998)
97. David Allen Coe “You Never Even Call Me by My Name” (1975)
98. Glen Campbell “Galveston” (1969)
99. Lefty Frizzell “Long Black Veil” (1959)
100. Ray Charles “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962)

101. Hank Locklin “Please Help Me, I’m Falling” (1960)
102. Jimmie Davis “You Are My Sunshine” (1940)
103. George Jones “She Thinks I Still Care” (1962)
104. Alan Jackson with Jimmy Buffett “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” (2003)
105. Randy Travis “On the Other Hand” (1985)
106. Miranda Lambert “The House That Built Me” (2010)
107. Rascal Flatts “Bless the Broken Road” (2004)
108. Hank Williams “Jambalaya on the Bayou” (1952)
109. Sugarland “Stay” (2007)
110. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys “Faded Love” (1950)

111. George Strait “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” (1987)
112. Eric Church “Springsteen” (2011)
113. David Houston “Almost Persuaded” (1966)
114. Keith Urban “Somebody Like You” (2002)
115. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash “Jackson” (1967)
116. Tanya Tucker “Delta Dawn” (1972)
117. Hank Williams “Cold, Cold Heart” (1951)
118. Gretchen Wilson “Redneck Woman” (2004)
119. Freddie Hart “Easy Loving” (1971)
120. The Band Perry “If I Die Young” (2010)

121. Dolly Parton “9 to 5” (1980)
122. Trisha Yearwood “She’s in Love with the Boy” (1991)
123. Bobbie Gentry “Ode to Billie Joe” (1967)
124. Osborne Brothers “Rocky Top” (1968)
125. Kenny Chesney “The Good Stuff” (2002)
126. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (2002)
127. Vince Gill “Go Rest High on That Mountain” (1994)
128. Hank Williams Jr. “Family Tradition” (1979)
129. Johnny Cash “Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down” (1970)
130. Jimmy Dean “Big Bad John” (1961)

131. Jimmie Rodgers “Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)” (1928)
132. The Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, & Kris Kristofferson) “The Highwayman” (1984)
133. Eddy Arnold “Bouquet of Roses” (1948)
134. Rosanne Cash “Seven Year Ache” (1981)
135. Tom T. Hall “Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine” (1972)
136. Dwight Yoakam “Guitars, Cadillacs” (1986)
137. Alabama “Mountain Music” (1982)
138. Thomas Rhett “Die a Happy Man” (2015)
139. Johnny Lee “Lookin’ for Love” (1980)
140. Sam Hunt “Body Like a Back Road” (2017)

141. Hank Thompson “The Wild Side of Life” (1952)
142. Donna Fargo “The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.” (1972)
143. Kenny Rogers “Lucille” (1977)
144. Loretta Lynn “Don't Come Home A’Drinkin’ with Lovin’ on Your Mind” (1967)
145. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (1950)
146. George Strait “Check Yes or No” (1995)
147. Kathy Mattea “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” (1988)
148. Patsy Cline “She’s Got You” (1962)
149. Brad Paisley with Alison Krauss “Whiskey Lullaby” (2004)
150. Connie Smith “Once a Day” (1964)

151. Darius Rucker “Wagon Wheel” (2013)
152. Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow” (2013)
153. Carrie Underwood “Jesus Take the Wheel” (2005)
154. Kenny Rogers “Coward of the County” (1979)
155. Zac Brown Band “Chicken Fried” (2008)
156. George Strait “Love Without End, Amen” (1990)
157. Eddy Arnold “The Cattle Call” (1945)
158. Alabama “Love in the First Degree” (1981)
159. Lefty Frizzell “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” (1950)
160. Vince Gill “When I Call Your Name” (1990)

161. Patsy Montana & the Prairie Ramblers “I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart” (1936)
162. Vern Gosdin “Chiseled in Stone” (1988)
163. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys “San Antonio Rose” (1939)
164. Hank Williams “Kaw-Liga” (1953)
165. Ray Price “Heartaches by the Number” (1959)
166. Dolly Parton “Here You Come Again” (1977)
167. Garth Brooks “If Tomorrow Never Comes” (1989)
168. C.W. McCall “Convoy” (1975)
169. John Denver “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (1974)
170. Johnny Cash “Daddy Sang Bass” (1968)

171. Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel” (1956)
172. Clint Black “A Better Man” (1989)
173. Little Big Town “Girl Crush” (2015)
174. The Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love” (1957)
175. Kenny Rogers “Lady” (1980)
176. Gene Autry “Back in the Saddle” (1939)
177. Travis Tritt “Here’s a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares” (1991)
178. Tim McGraw with Patty Loveless “Please Remember Me” (1999)
179. Glen Campbell “Gentle on My Mind” (1967)
180. Bebe Rexha with Florida Georgia Line “Meant to Be” (2017)

181. The Judds “Grandpa, Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days” (1985)
182. Hank Williams “I Saw the Light” (1948)
183. Sonny James “Young Love” (1956)
184. The Judds “Mama He’s Crazy” (1984)
185. Don Gibson “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1958)
186. Buck Owens “Together Again” (1964)
187. Hank Williams Jr. “A Country Boy Can Survive” (1981)
188. Carl Butler & Pearl “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” (1962)
189. Toby Keith “How Do You Like Me Now?!” (1999)
190. Charlie Rich “The Most Beautiful Girl” (1973)

191. Dan + Shay “Tequila” (2018)
192. Porter Wagoner “Green, Green Grass of Home” (1965)
193. Dixie Chicks “Cowboy Take Me Away” (1999)
194. Brooks & Dunn “My Maria” (1996)
195. Tex Williams “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” (1947)
196. Merle Haggard & the Strangers “Today I Started Loving You Again” (1968)
197. Shania Twain “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” (1997)
198. Hunter Hayes “Wanted” (2011)
199. Roger Miller “Dang Me” (1964)
200. Randy Travis “Three Wooden Crosses” (2003)

Resources/Related Links:

First posted 8/3/2011; last updated 11/12/2023.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Western Writers of America: The Top 100 Western Songs

Western Writers of America:

Top 100 Western Songs

From the Wayback Machine website: “The Western Writers of America surveyed its members for the top 100 Western Songs of all time. The list was presented at the WWA’s Annual Convention Knoxville, Tennessee. This list is an interesting mixture of old, traditional songs, songs from the movies and songs which many might label ‘country.’” WB

Surprisingly, the list does not appear to be on the Western Writers of America website but has been posted on other sites, such as the Wayback Machine. The list seems to have originally been posted on October 19, 2010. The list did not indicate years or artists but I have filled in that information as much as possible. Some of these are well-established standards not associated with a particular artist but others are very identified with specific acts and have been indicated as such.

Click here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations.

1. Marty Robbins “Ghost Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1969)
2. Marty Robbins “El Paso” (1959)
3. The Sons of the Pioneers “Cool Water” (1941)
4. Frank H. Maynard (writer) “Streets of Laredo/Cowboy’s Lament” (1911)
5. Gene Autry “Back in the Saddle Again” (1939)
6. Tex Ritter “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)” (1952)
7. unknown (w/m) “Shenandoah” (1837)
8. The Sons of the Pioneers “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” (1934)
9. Dr. Brewster M. Higley (w), Daniel E. Kelly (m) “Home on the Range” (1874)
10. traditional “Red River Valley” (1896)

11. Marty Robbins “Big Iron” (1959)
12. Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters “Don’t Fence Me In” (1944)
13. Unknown (w/m) “Bury Me Not in the Lone Prairie” (1910)
14. Eagles “Desperado” (1973)
15. Michael Martin Murphey “Wildfire” (1975)
16. Eddy Arnold “Cattle Call” (1955)
17. Townes Van Zandt (w/m) “Pancho and Lefty” (1972) / Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard (1983)
18. Howard “Jack” Thorp (writer) “Little Joe, the Wrangler” (1908)
19. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (writers) “They Call the Wind Mariah” (1951)
20. Don Edwards “Coyotes” (1993)

21. Dinah Shore “Along the Navaho Trail” (1945)
22. Roy Rogers “Happy Trails” (1948)
23. Frankie Laine “Rawhide” (1958)
24. Mitch Miller “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1955)
25. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson “Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978)
26. Bill Hayes “Ballad of Davy Crockett” (1955)
27. Gogi Grant “Wayward Wind” (1956)
28. Curley Fletcher (writer) “The Strawberry Roan” (1915)
29. D.J. O’Malley (w), traditional (music) “When the Works All Done This Fall” (1910)
30. Bing Crosby “Empty Saddles in the Old Corral” (1936)

31. Marty Robbins “Ballad of the Alamo” (1960)
32. Tennessee Ernie Ford “Mule Train” (1949)
33. Willie Nelson “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” (1979)
34. Bob Dylan “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (1973)
35. George Strait “Amarillo by Morning” (1983)
36. Gene Pitney “Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962)
37. Mike Blakely “The Last Comanche Moon” (1999)
38. Percy Montrose (writer) “Clementine (aka ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’)” (1884)
39. Johnny Cash “The Rebel (Johnny Yuma)” (1959)
40. Johnny Cash “Ballad of Ira Hayes” (1964)

41. Johnny Horton “North to Alaska” (1960)
42. Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson “My Rifle, My Pony and Me” (1959)
43. Johnny Cash “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” (1958)
44. Shep Fields with Hal Derwin “South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)” (1939)
45. Jerry Jeff Walker “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” (1973)
46. Owen Wister (writer) “Get Along, Little Dogies” (1893)
47. Cool White (w) “Buffalo Gals (Will You Come Out Tonight)” (1844)
48. Bing Crosby “I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande” (1935)
49. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys “New San Antonio Rose” (1940)
50. Frankie Laine “Gunfight at the OK Corral” (1957)

51. John Denver with Emmylou Harris “Wild Montana Skies” (1983)
52. The Highwaymen “Last Cowboy Song” (1985)
53. Duane Eddy “Ballad of Paladin” (1962)
54. Tom Russell “Tonight We Ride” (2004)
55. Alfred Drake & the Oklahoma Cast “Oklahoma!” (1943)
56. Lou Fishback, Carl Copeland, and Jack Williams (writers) “I’d Like to Be in Texas for the Roundup in the Spring” (1927)
57. Brenn Hill “Call You Cowboy” (2001)
58. Al Caiola & His Orchestra “Bonanza” (1961)
59. Chris LeDoux “Old Double Diamond” (1975)
60. Rev. H.D.L. Webster (w), Joseph Philbrick Webster (m) “Lorena” (1857)

61. Marty Robbins “The Hanging Tree” (1959)
62. The Hotmud Family “Dust Eatin’ Cowboys” (1981)
63. Elton Britt “Cowpoke” (1951)
64. Waylon Jennings “Old Timer” (1975)
65. Willie Nelson “Red Headed Stranger” (1975)
66. Mike Blakely “Last Wild White Buffalo” (2008)
67. unknown (writer) “Jesse James” (1887)
68. Tom T. Hall “Faster Horses” (1975)
69. George Alexander & the Mellomen “El Dorado” (1966)
70. Charley Willis “Goodbye Old Paint” (1921)

71. The Kingston Trio “Tom Dooley” (1958)
72. Patsy Montana & the Prairie Ramblers “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” (1936)
73. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys “Wayfaring Stranger” (1958)
74. Mike Blakely “The Old Cantina” (2003)
75. Margaret Larkin & Lynn Riggs (writers) “I Ride an Old Paint” (1927)
76. The Judds “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days)” (1986)
77. Ian & Sylvia “Someday Soon” (1964)
78. Ian Tyson “Summer Wages” (1987)
79. Johnny Horton “The Battle of New Orleans” (1959)
80. Kay Kyser with Harry Babbitt & Julie Conway “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle” (1942)

81. Roy Rogers & the Sons of the Pioneers “Blue Shadows on the Trail” (1948)
82. Stephen Foster (m/w) “Oh! Susanna” (1847)
83. traditional “Sweet Betsy from Pike” (1851)
84. Carl Sandburg (published) “Colorado Trail” (1927)
85. Bill Barwick “When Roy Rogers Was Around” (2004)
86. Ian Tyson & Tom Russell (writers) “Navajo Rug” (1986)
87. Tex Ritter “Remember the Alamo” (1955)
88. The Sons of the Pioneers “Billy the Kid” (1937)
89. M.E. Abbey (w), Charles Davis Tillman (m) “Life Is Like a Mountain Railway” (1891)
90. traditional “Old Chisholm Trail” (1910)

91. The Statler Brothers “Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott” (1974)
92. The Kingston Trio “Desert Pete” (1963)
93. John Denver “Rocky Mountain High” (1972)
94. The Sons of the Pioneers “Theme from the Searchers” (1956)
95. Everett Marshall “Wagon Wheels” (1934)
96. Les Paul & Mary Ford “Vaya Con Dios (May God Be with You)” (1953)
97. Gene Autry “Ridin’ Down the Canyon” (1942)
98. Vivian Clark Gilbert & Mary Margaret Hadler (writers) “Shifting, Whispering Sands” (1955)
99. Woody Guthrie “Oklahoma Hills” (1945)
100. Marty Robbins “Master’s Call” (1959)

Resources/Related Links:

First posted 12/3/2025.

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Monday, December 21, 2009

50 years ago: Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” topped country chart

El Paso

Marty Robbins

Writer(s): Marty Robbins (see lyrics here)

Released: October 26, 1959

First Charted: November 9, 1959

Peak: 12 US, 2 CB, 12 HR, 17 CW, 19 UK, 13 CN, 18 AU, 3 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 26.8 video, 44.68 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Marty Robbins said he would have been a cowboy had he been born sooner. Initially, his music “failed to reveal his love for the range.” AC However, after singing the theme to the 1959 Gary Cooper movie, The Hanging Tree, he “delved into a western sound.” AC He was inspired to write “El Paso” because of Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans.” It showed Robbins that the “public had a craving for finely crafted historical odes.” AC He figured audiences would take to a song about the Old West.

He’d driven through El Paso a few times and loved the mix of Mexican and American culture in the city. He used that and stories his grandfather, a cowboy, had told about range wars to craft a “tragedy of Shakespearean proportions” AC about “a cowboy, a beautiful Mexican maiden, and a mean gunslinger.” AC While the story was fictitious, it “captured the romance of the range like no other song ever had or probably ever will.” AC Bob Dylan called it “a ballad of the tortured soul” BD that “seems like a typical western ballad, [but] is anything but.” BD

It had long been an unwritten rule in the music industry to not release a single longer than three minutes. AC Columbia Records balked at the 4:40 running time of “El Paso” and refused to put it out as a 45, but agreed to release it on an album. When Gunfigher Ballads and Trail Songs had been out four weeks, demand for “El Paso” was so strong that the record company relented and released it as a single. FB

The song topped the country charts on December 21, 1959. Two weeks later, it ascended to the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well. It was Marty Robbins’ sixth of sixteen #1 songs on the country chart but his only #1 pop song. “El Paso” spent 7 weeks atop the country chart. Although he would have a couple of other songs which topped that, but “none would be so idetntified with the singer as ‘El Paso.’” AC

Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marty Robbins
  • FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 63.
  • AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Pages 127-9.
  • BD Bob Dylan (2022). The Philosophy of Modern Song. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Pages 105-8.
  • WK Wikipedia

First posted 8/27/2022; last updated 11/2/2022.

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Friday, December 8, 2006

50 years ago: “Singing the Blues” hit #1 on pop charts for first of 10 weeks

Singing the Blues

Marty Robbins

Writer(s): Melvin Endsley (see lyrics here)

First Charted: September 22, 1956

Peak: 17 US, 17 HP, 113Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 1.01 video, -- streaming

Singing the Blues

Guy Mitchell

First Charted: October 20, 1956

Peak: 110 US, 17 HP, 19 CB, 18 HR, 13 UK, 16 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 2.66 video, 1.91 streaming

Awards (Robbins):

Click on award for more details.

Awards (Mitchell):

About the Song:

For a man who became “one of country music’s most unique stars,” AC Marty Robbins surprisingly didn’t show much interest in music until after entering the Navy. He started learning guitar while on a ship in the Pacific and when he got home to Phoenix, Airzona, he persuaded an old friend who owned a night club to let him sit in with the house band. After getting a chance to sing, he became a regular headliner at the club. He started charting country hits in 1952, but four years later he had only six chart entries. He had a “tremendous voice and boundless energy” AC but “didn’t know who he wanted to be” AC which kept him from narrowing in a specific direction or style.

Around this time, songwriter Melvin Endsley had dreams of coming to Nashville and writing hits for Hank Williams. After Williams’ death, Endlsey said, “In all honesty, I still was writing songs for him after he died.” AC When he and a friend drove to Nashville in the summer of 1955, he naively dreamed of hitting it big, not realizing “that a country boy just didn’t drive into town, sell a big song and become a star. That only happened in the movies.” AC

However, Endsley and his friend went to a show and ran into Marty Robbins. Ensley said he’d written some songs and Robbins asked him to play some. He then asked him to come to the studio the next day to record. Robbins asked him to hold one song – “Singing the Blues” – for six months because he thought he might like to record it. A year later, Robbins released it as a single and it dethroned Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog”/”Don’t Be Cruel” single from the top of the country charts.

Two months after that, a Detroit-born singer named Guy Mitchell covered the song and took it to #1 on the pop charts. He racked up nine top-ten hits from 1950 to 1960, including “Heartaches by the Number,” another #1 version of a song which was originally a country hit. Around the same time as Robbins and Mitchell’s takes on the song, Tommy Steele also released it and – like Robbins’ version – hit #1 in the UK.

Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Guy Mitchell
  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marty Robbins
  • AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Pages 97-99.
  • WK Wikipedia

First posted 8/27/2022.

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Friday, May 14, 1999

Today in Music (1949): Vaughn Monroe hit #1 with “Ghost Riders in the Sky”

Ghost Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)

Vaughn Monroe

Writer(s): Stan Jones (see lyrics here)

First Charted: April 23, 1949

Peak: 112 BB, 111 BA, 112 DJ, 110 JB, 18 GA, 12 HP, 112 SM, 15 AU (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 3.66 video, 1.90 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Stan Jones was a forest ranger who wrote songs on the side. SF He wrote this “country and cowboy-style song” WK in the summer of 1948 based on a story he’d heard at 12-years old by an old cowboy friend. WK The following year, the song gave the charts “a rustic, outdoors bias.” TY1 Vaughn Monroe (#1), Peggy Lee (#2), Bing Crosby (#14), and Burl Ives (#21) all charted with versions of the song on the U.S. pop charts. PM Monroe’s version wasn’t just a #1, but the the biggest pop song of 1949 CPM and the biggest of Monroe’s nine chart toppers. It was also one of three songs of his to sell a million copies. PM

The song serves up a “folk tale” WK of “cowboy hell.” SF A cowboy has a vision of “a herd of red-eyed cows” TY1 “thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them,” WK “doomed to chase the Devil’s cattle for all eternity.” SF

The song, which is also sometimes known as “Riders in the Sky,” “Ghost Riders,” and “A Cowboy Legend” has been recorded at least 50 times by artists including Johnny Cash, Spike Jones, Frankie Laine, and Marty Robbins. WK Gene Autry sang it in the movie of the same name in 1949. WK Jones recorded it on his own 1957 album Creakin’ Leather. WK Through the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, other versions by the Ramrods, Lawrence Welk, the Baja Marimba Band, the Outlaws, and Duane Eddy also charted. The Ramrods top-40 instrumental-version was the highest charting.

“The melody is based on the song ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home,’” WK and, “according to Robby Krieger, it inspired the classic Doors song ‘Riders on the Storm.’” WK It also inspired the Marvel Comics Western character Ghost Rider who was later renamed Phantom Rider. WK

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Last updated 9/8/2021; updated 5/15/2025.

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