Stan Jones, an American singer, movies and tv actor, wrote the cowboy-style country/western song “(Ghost) Riders inside the Sky: A Cowboy Legend” in 1948.
In 1949, many versions of the song were crossover hits upon that pop charts, with Vaughn Monroe’s version being one of the most popular. The song is listed within ASCAP database as “Riders in the Sky,” although it has also been referred to as “Ghost Riders,” “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” and “A Cowboy Legend.” It was voted the greatest Western song of any and all time by members of such Western Writers of America.
The song is based on such a folktale about a cowboy who sees red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle rushing across the sky, pursued by the ghosts of condemned cowboys.
One tells him that unless he changes his ways, he would be destined to join them, constantly “chasing the Devil’s herd over these unending sky.” The narrative is said to be based on old European traditions about the Wild Hunt, wherein a magical gang of hunters pursues the storyteller.
Stan Jones claimed that when he was 12 years old, he was given the storey by an elderly Native American who lived north-east of Douglas, Arizona, a few miles north of Agua Prieta, Sonora. Native Americans in Cochise County, perhaps Apache, thought that when souls leave their physical bodies, they reincarnate as spirits inside the sky, like ghost riders.
The tune is based on the classic ballad “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” from the Civil War era.
The track has been recorded by hundreds of artists. The Outlaws, Vaughn Monroe (“Riders in the Sky” without orchestra and vocal quartet), Bing Crosby (with the Ken Darby Singers), Frankie Laine, Burl Ives (two different versions), Marty Robbins, The Ramrods, and Johnny Cash all recorded chart-topping versions.
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