Tex Ritter recorded two masterpieces of cowboy music: "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" and "The Old Chisholm Trail." When Tex was good he was excellent, but when he was bad he was horrible.
This was borne out by a 4-disc set I just checked out from the library called Have I Stayed Away Too Long. It had 113 tracks on it. Most were sappy love songs, but about a quarter were cowboy tunes. And still, every one of them sucked. No, Tex, you haven't stayed away long enough. The sets' only saving grace was this comic book cover gallery.
Still, I don't really blame Tex - I blame the producers. If he was capable of such great stuff as "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" and the song presented below, surely he had more great music in him. I'm still looking.
"The Old Chisholm Trail" by Tex Ritter
8 comments:
A third classic, if I may --Tex sang "High Noon (Do Not Foresake Me, Oh My Darlin')" --the theme for HIGH NOON, which won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Song. Tex sang it at the firt televised Oscars in 1953. BTW -I reviewed of one of the Ritter comics posted above (No. 19) under "Comics" at my blog.
I'm sure I have his version of High Noon here somewhere, Richard, and will give a listen. I don't like the song much, but I seem to recollect finding Frankie Laine's version the most palatable. The most entertaining version is "Sag Warum Willst Du Von Mir Gehen" (yep, it's sung in German) by Bruce Low. And I'll check out your review. I've never actually seen one of these comics.
"Sag Warum..." sounds like a hoot. Reminds me of a Marvel comic one of my college friends brought home from Europe --reprints of super-hero, SF, and western (Two-Gun Kid), all in Greek.
Not like the High Noon song? Turn in your Stetson, pretender! It's a great piece of music whether done by Ritter or Laine. IMHO, natch.
It's true, I'm a heretic. I also have no fondness for "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," which along with "High Noon," form the holy trinity of cowboy music. On the other hand, I think tunes like "On the Old Chisolm Trail" and "The Cowboy's Lament (Streets of Laredo)" are among the finest ever written, ranking right up there after "Louie, Louie" and "The Ballad of Davy Crockett." Still, you'll have to pry that Stetson out of my cold dead flippers.
I think I feel a "High Noon" shootout coming on. Ritter vs. Laine vs. Low. Watch for it soon in your local Almanack.
Cool Water always gave me the heebie jeebies for some reason, but Ritter's High Noon is sheer awesomeness.
Now I'm going to have to dig out my old Sons of the Pioneers album...
One of life's great disappointments is that the Sons never recorded "Louie, Louie." Oh, well. At least they did "Davy Crockett."
I like all the ones you don't. To each his own, I guess. And as you know, I think "Louie, Louie" is vastly overrated. " The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is a classic, all 27 stanzas.
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