Song of the Week 02: Ghost Riders In The Sky

n 2009, the members of the Western Writers of America named “Ghost Riders In The Sky” as No 1 on their list of the top 100 western songs of all time. The writer of the song, Arizona’s Stan Jones, a National Parks Service ranger in Death Valley, released the first recording of it in June of 1948. The following year, 1949, versions were released by Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, and Vaughn Monroe (whose recording reached No. 1 on the charts and was named the No. 1 record of that year.) Gene Autry’s motion picture “Riders In The Sky,” loosely based on the song, was released along with his recorded version in August of 1949.

The story has similarities to the centuries-old northern European myth of the “Wild Hunt” popularized in an 1835 book by German folklorist Jakob Grimm. The tune has similarities to the 1870’s Irish folk song “Spancil Hill” and the Civil War era’s “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” But Jones’ composition was the first to combine those with the American west and the cowboy and he maintained he was told the story as a boy by an older cowboy friend.

We listened to dozens of both instrumental and vocal versions by artists as diverse as The Ramrods, The Ventures, The Sons Of The Pioneers, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Michael Martin Murphey, and Riders In The Sky to craft our recording of it. It was released in October 2014 on our first album, “A Little Farther West.”