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From: markalson1938
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  • simplement magnifique

  • love his singing and his songs

  • Can anyone remember a  TV Rin Tin Tin episode that featured this song?

  • Does anyone know if that was Grady Martin playing those great guitar licks? Sounds like him to me.

  • this man could sing

  • thank you so much for the response and the original recording.

  • I've never heard this version. That classical guitar is awesome. Burl doesn't sound like a cowboy so much, but his vocal style is awesome. I agree with the guy that said he sees a snowman when he hears Burl's voice. I guess that's not such a bad legacy.

  • The part at the beginning reminds me of the James Bond theme song!

  • Great Art Last Forever - Magic

  • Travel out West at night on the plains you wonder if you can see something like this.

  • Burl Ives recorded this song in Feb, 1949, Vaughn Monroe recorded it one month later in March.

  • @MrRahimi5 this is not what he recorded in 1949. The original is much simpler and posted as a response.

  • make it scary. It scared me, as a very little girl. BUt I loved !!

  • 7 people don't know a great song when they hear it!!!

  • @Badboi1016 Now it's 12 people and one of them knows Burl's original version. Take a listen in the response.

  • Nope...I do love folk....but this is not for me....I'm sorry,,,each to their own...

  • WOW how good is this!!! yheee hawww

  • i dont wanna be hated for this..but i think the outlaws do a better version..ALOT better

  • It sounds like James Bond at first.

  • Always like his voice! Thanks!

  • Good question!

    There are different versions. This one is the version of his last album recorded in the eighties. The very first version he recorded back in 1949 was just he and his guitar !!

  • Its Stinky Wizzleteats ! Sing us a song about a whale Stinky !

  • wow....burl was a great guitar player..........much better than i thought at first....hes awesome

  • I love this song in all its forms!

  • Do you all know that Burl Ives was about 80 years old when he recorded this ???

    This was originally released on an album called "Some of our favorite songs for our special friends"!!!

  • @garyroute66 burl was born 1909 and the song was recorded and released 1949, how does that equal 80 years ? :-)

  • awesome

  • "Red" as in Communist, Red eyed Cows!!! Hell, Ya!!! Yeah!! Yah!! Yah!!

  • Not heard this version before of my favourite western song. Thanks for posting, its great.

  • Burl Ives was one the greatest socialist singers

    in the 1940's

    until he was expelled from Hollywood

    for being opposed to war

    and the Federal Reserve.

    Long live socialist Burl Ives.

    Youtube: paul8kangas

  • some songs just dont have an experation date, smooth!

  • Wow... this is FANTASTIC. The best recording of this, with the blue grass guitar. I love Jonny & Highymen, but THIS ROCKS... he made this song famous back in 1949.

  • @enlightenedspartan Yes Burl did a fantastic job on this great western song. But he is not the one who made it famous back in 1949. That was done by Vaughn Monroe

    who had the biggest hit of this song and no one has been able to top him. His recording sold several million copies over the years no one else has even come close.

  • @markalson1938 sorry Gene Autry made it famous in 1949 in an episode of his COWBOY show even renamed the episode riders in the sky i think the songs writer S.Jones was on the show too (not real sure)

  • @markalson1938 Burl was the first to do the song in February '48. Vaughn's came less than a month later. On another note, I've always been partial to the Johnny Cash version

  • @enlightenedspartan This, of course, isn't the 1949 version. You'll be able to hear Burl's '49 version if you poke around youtube enough.

  • Wow... this is FANTASTIC. The best recording of this, with the blue grass guitar. I love Jonny & Highymen, but THIS ROCKS...

  • Thanks to all Burl ives fans and the songs you are loading. can anybody add WAYFARING STRANGER or VENEZUELA or I LOVE THE PIANO. I had those and many others on a record, but alas, this is not usable anymore. Thanks

  • I LOVE THE SONG I NOT OLD TO REMEBER THE SONG

  • Just listen to the guitar work in the background. Wow!

  • Many singers wish they could act, actors wish they could sing, etc. Burl is one of the few whose talents were succeeded only by his huge girth! For fans of Burl the actor, also check out "Let No Man Write my Epitaph"(ca. 1960), with Ricardo Montalban as the sinister heavy, a role he played so well...

  • My Dad told me that Burl Ives was in his barracks in WWII. He always sang his songs, eventually performing for the big brass. in time he made it "big", ultimately winning an Oscar in 1958 for "The Big Country".

  • I know he sang it first but I can't get over the fact that all I hear is his character on Rudolph.

  • yaaaaaahuuuuuuuuuuuuu.........­... vams vakero!

  • There's a much simpler version on the collection called Ultimate Burl. Just Burl and on vocals and guitar. He goes for the high notes a lot and he hits them. It's really different from any other version I've heard.

  • I doubt this is the first recording, what you hear here is a stereo recording and the bass is clearly played with an electric bass. This is a re-recording of the Ives version, and it seems this re-recording is found on best of compilations too.

  • Comment removed

  • YIPPIE YI-YAY

  • There's a bit of the Bond theme in this - fantastic

  • The picture I get from Vaughn’s version is a western movie in action. From the version of Burl Ives it’s more like narrating a tale... There are a lot of magnificent songs in 50’s! Great upload!

  • @vamolas You are so right about this. I just love old Western Movies. But then again I also like to sit around and lisen to an Old Timer tell his tall tails also

  • I think it is indeed better than Vaughn Monroe's version. The vocals are better, as for the music background I understand the point althouth I find this one better as well cause it is more traditional and that makes it more descriptive. Both of them are great.

  • @vamolas Burl was a "Folk Singer" and all his music tended to lean that way. Vaughn

    was a "Big Band" Leader and singer his take on a song went in that direction. It depends a great deal on your age and where you grew up that shapes your taste in music. It doesn't make one better than the other, but it does to the person lisening to it. Me I grew up with the big Band Sounds. But I do like Bur Ives.

    "

  • I love the way he sings 'yippee yi yay' it is so haunting. perfect

  • Mr. Ives recorded this before Vaughn Monroe did.

  • @ranran19701 Yes, But that doesn't make it better

  • Did I say that? I made a statement of historical fact. Many people believe Vaughn Monroe's was first.

  • Even with all the mess that clogs the charts and general publics music today old songs never die. It's incredible how much music you find if you look, i'm 23 and nobody in my family listens to folk. People should search more, you hear a great song it may very well be a cover, find the original and find their music, then stumble upon similar artists, hear another cover and find more. It's endless.

    Music has this beautiful chain that the narrowminded will never see.

  • @grishkaven I wish there were more 23 year olds like you who has an open mind to music of the past. Over the years there have been many recordings of this song and none of them wrote it. There were several that came out at about the same time in 1949.

    Burl's is great but I think Vaughn Monroe's recording which was the biggest hit is by far the best.

  • @markalson1938 while i think that Burl's and Vaughan's are good versions, the best version by far is Frankie Laines. Could anyone upload a Burl Ives song that goes, "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly"

  • i heard this song in the movie ghost rider, its a shame they used one of the remakes of the song, the original version is awsome!

  • ALL IVES SONGS R GR8

  • im 22 and i love this music

  • This is one of the Best versions of Ghost Riders In The Sky done, Ever! Thank You Dear Burle Ives.

  • im nearly 60 years old, and people laugh when I tell them this man was the greatest folk singer in American history. So many beautiful songs that the generation of today will never know.

  • @operalament The public's memory is very short and since his old movies such as

    "The Big Coubtry" and "Cat On A Tin Roof" are played on TV all the time; and his records are hardly ever played People think of him as a actor not a singer. It's their loss

    as he was the greatest Folk singer a generation before thr "Kingston Trio" came along.

  • @markalson1938 Had the chance to see him when I was a kid. 1961 in Seattle at Iver's Seafood. He seemed such a sweet humble kinda guy. And a great show.

  • @operalament

    Met Burl Ives in Nova Scotia in the 1970s. He played to a packed house and everyone loved the man. The other poster is right that people have a short memory in the new improved "instant world" of one hit wonders.

  • @operalament I'm 66 and totally agree with, in my youth he was always on the radio, didn't matter what he sang he was great

  • That was pleasant! 

  • I've listened to Burl Ives for a long time, too, from his old radio days when the shows came in 15 minute blocks. I was amazed that he sang the songs my granny sang to my siblings and me. Bless him for all the good music and memories.

  • 26 years old and I've loved this man forever. One of the greatest ever its a shame hes been gone so long. My grandchildren will be listening to this till the day I die. Burl Ives lives on

  • @painnneck I wish there were more of your age with your taste in music. Then maybe there wouldn't so much of the junk they call music today cludering up the air ways. It's just a thought.

  • @markalson1938 I'm 19 and I love this!

  • Just FIVE little stars !!! *****

  • I loved Burl in all he did. HO HO HO

  • amazing you can never replecate this sound this vintage music is gone from the present but will live on in our hearts forever im a twenty year old "hood" but i know great music and the trash that musicians are singing to day cant be called music this was music at its best thank you

  • @trooperman89 I wish there were more your age that thought the same, including my Grandson who still thinks "KISS" is the tops.

  • Everyone that likes Mr.Ives great storyteller voice,will forever remember that voice in a Ives favorite movie or song. mine is a little bitty tear . RV

  • As much as I enjoy his voice, it just does not do this song justice. That I have to say is the first time I have ever said that about Ives singing any song.

  • good version but his voice mhh but hell

  • yes i don't understand, very troubling

  • Those ghost riders should go on strike. What do they have to lose? They're already in hell, after all.

  • They could end up in Detroit?

  • Burl Ives aficianado. My mother once dated Burl in his youth so she had every recording of his made. From 78's, 33 1/3 to 45's she had them all.; and she played or sang them continuously. My favorite of Burl Ives was Hill Billy Heaven. I hope he made it there.

  • If there is a Hill Billy Heaven I know Burl will be there even though He was Country-folk but I don't think of him as a hill billy. He was also a great actor.

  • @HOWFREERU --Do you recall the VERY short song that went--"From here on up the hills don't get any higher but the hollors get deeper and deeper." Loved it, would like to know the song's name. Appreciate any info. Sx2

  • I love this version; I think the music is perfect. But I've been brainwashed, lol; I can't hear that voice now without thinking he sounds like a snowman...

  • Yes he did sort of look like the snowman in the cartoon he lent his voice too. But to me he will always be "Big Daddy"

  • Very true. Tennessee Williams wrote the part of Big Daddy specifically for Burl. Have seen Burl in a few other movies (East of Eden, The Big Country, etc.) but Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was by far his best role.

    RIP Burl...

  • Does anyone know who wrote this song originaly?? I used to think Jhonny Cash wrote it.

  • "Ghost Riders" was written by Stanley Davis Jones in 1948. A long time before anyone ever heard of Johnny Cash. In 1949 Vaughn Monroe had the big hit of this great western song which was followed by many many other singers. Johnny Cashes recording didn't come out till 1979.

  • @robert1352 Benny hill..LOL

  • It cannot be the original recording from 1949, because it is in Hifi Stereo, but it's a very good remake.

  • I never knew Burl Ives recorded this. I'm definitely old enough to appreciate his music. Awesome guitar

  • Sounds like Burl "007" Ives meets Art Bell.

  • amazing.

    burl ives , a real legend.

  • HOLE---EEE----WOW!!!!

    I LOVVVVVE this!!!

    Never heard him sing this, this is AMAZING, Burl Ives is endlessly AMAZING!

  • im realated to him.

  • That's nothing to boast about.

  • @ralstonemily Lucky you, to have such a supertalented relative. What would he think of today's artists?

  • I was brought up on Burl singing Gospel. This is the first time I've heard this song from him.

    I Love It. :)

  • I like this version just as much as The Outlaws's version. They both have its advantages.

  • The Outlaws were a "Johnny Come Lately" to this great song They hit the charts at only #31 only in 1981. Burl's version plus the realy big hit at #1 of Vaughn Monroes was back in 1949. Many did it after that but none did it better.

  • Comment removed

  • Ives gave this song a peppy folk style, while The Outlaws refined it southern rock style that actually worked.

  • Take no offense, but The Billboard charts, other than a few exceptions, mean little to me, at least in my generation. I mean, Nickelback and Lil Wayne are on these charts, and I really can't point out anything good about them. It really shouldn't matter how they rate it as long as you follow your own musical tastes.

  • Your Right, The charts hold little interest to me after the 1950's. As for as I'm conserned, starting in the late fifties just got worse as time went by. Yes you should go by your taste and not the so called fads of any generation. My taste run to the

    Pop Fifties the time before Rock' Roll. But there was some good music in each decade, but it is getting harder to find. I no idea who Nickelback or Lil Wayne is but I bet Simon Cowle would like them.

  • oo7

  • @dannytoro. You forgot about Johnny Cash, Kay Starr, Frank Laine, The scorpions, Duane eddy, and probably more.

  • First off I didn't forget about the one's you mentioned. I have them all except Duane Eddy.

    I'm refering to the singers who charted with the song when it was new back in 1949. The others

    came along much later. and most never hit the charts, Johnny Cash's was on the country charts,

    Frankie Laine's(my favoried singer) was only on an album, Kay Starr had a single of it in 59 never charted.

  • ........It would be interesting to see that revenue sharing in these sue at a drop of a hat times times-lol

  • This is an interesting song! Burl Ives released it first. Then Vaughn Monroe. Then Bing Crosby. Then Peggy Lee. Then Spike Jones. Ives version was recorded on Feb. 14th 1949, and the last was Spike Jones on May 24th 1949. Can you imagine seeing the same song on the top ten list Five times by Five Artist in four months today?

  • This was the norm for a great song way back in the forties. Each record company would put out a version of the song . "Mule Train" had five in the top 20.

    "Mam"sell" had had 7 in the top 15 and "That Lucky Old Sun" had 6 on the charts. to name just a few, so this was the norm for that period.

  • Jah bless ya Burl, ride on

  • Burl on a Cash tin roof......

  • The late, great Burl Ives. Rest in peace.

  • cash mate

  • i have a request?

    could you upload

    Burl Ives song, Bow down

    and green grass of home

  • The answer may be buried here somewhere but I am wondering how Johnny Cash came to sing this.

  • I guess Johnny just like the song. Through the years many singers have done this song. After 1949 when Vaughn Monroe had the BIG hit of it plus several smaller hit versions, most of the recordings have been on LP's that different sings have put out.

  • One more point... Jones Originally Titled it{Riders In The Sky} Columbia Records added "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky. Jones' other credits include the theme music to the Warner Bros. television series Cheyenne, and the title theme from the landmark John Ford Western The Searchers.

  • (OK SO I DID"T POST IN RIGHT SEQUENCES) Anyways.... By 1950, Jones was writing songs for major motion pictures, including Ford's Rio Grande, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara -- Ford learned of Jones' songs when actors Harry Carey Jr. and Ben Johnson brought him and his music to the director in person, during shooting -- where they were sang by the Sons of the Pioneers, and he was being looked at by Walt Disney Studios,

  • .....only to have them turned down by the music companies he approached -- one even said that "Riders" was too dirgeful and funereal. He recorded that song and a few others on his own, and composer Eden Ahbez best known for the hit "Nature Boy" heard "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" and brought it to Burl Ives, who cut it for Columbia Records. It was later picked up by Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, as well as dozens of others, and Jones had a new career and major Hollywood representation.

  • During a slow point in the work, Jones pulled out his guitar and started singing some of those songs and was told by Scott and the rest of the crew that the songs might go nicely in Western movies and that he should try and sell them to the Hollywood studios.Jones followed their advice and tried to publish some of his songs (including "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," which owed its melody to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"),...

  • Ghost Riders In The Sky composed by "Stanley Davis Jones was born in Arizona in 1915 and became a forest ranger. He had an interest in music, could sing a little and play a guitar, and occasionally wrote songs in his spare time. In the fall of 1948, he was assigned as a technical advisor on a Columbia Pictures movie called The Walking Hills, starring Randolph Scott and Ella Raines and directed by John Sturges, when the crew was doing their location shooting in Death Valley. (Will post more info)

  • I first knew Burl Ives from his tv show in the early 50s. Not sure if Hoagy Carmichael did every other week. My Grandmother had a copy of "Fogy Foggy Dew." Then from "Big Daddy". Then from a Time magazine story about Christmas Cards. Then a picture of him singing while in a wheelchair. Interesting to find he was the originator of this song? Or?

  • this song makes me want to cry, it is awsome

  • Walt Disney sure has fallen from when they had men like Burl Ives star in their movies to what they have now....God rest your soul Burl....

  • although it could have my Uncle Ben playing it on his guitar a little slower. He was playing from the Burl Ives sheet music, I don't recall ever hearing the real thing until later, but seem to remember it was not "fast".

  • Remember, when this was released, 3:30 was a 'long" time for air play. You had to fit the time the program dir. allotted. I am not sure but this may account for the "fast" pace you have here.

  • it seems to faster than remember......it's be so long......i seem to remeber a little slower.

  • I think it might have just been redone, like a remix or something. That's his voice alright, someone may have just re-did it so it would sound...well...amazing lol.

  • Good ol' Burl Ives. I will always remember him for his fabulous portrayal of Rufus Hannassey in the terrific 1958 movie, The Big Country. In that role he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. For all you young people who might want a look into what an epic western of the late 1950s was like, go rent or watch that movie. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much you like it. Background music was great, in my opinion. Besides, Burl, there were Peck, Charles Bickford, Heston, Simmons.

  • Does anyone here have the real scoop on this recording? It's in stereo with a Fender electric bass and modern country licks. It can't be the original. Who are the (many) guitar players on this recording, what is the year, where was it recorded and who has a copy of the original? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks macmidiATaolDOTcom

  • His voice makes me think of Walter Huston's Howard in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".

  • From a time when you needed talent to be good.

    Unlike today, with tape loops, drum machines, effects peddles, and synthesizers.

    1940 to 1985 talent went from real to fake anything after 1985 is mostly studio tricks and no talent lip sinking trash, not all but most.

    It's a damn shame from glen miller to jimmi Hendrix , dean martin to Armstrong, Sinatra to the moody blues, the everly brothers to Led Zeppelin, and Yes. they will never be equaled again. Today's singers n groups got no talent

  • Domitianvs

    I clearly said most was trash now days not all.

    I did not say no good music was made after 1985.

    Not a good reason to call me a ignorant and retarded. When that describes what you did you did not read well as I said most not all, and this is for posting opinions of the subject not flaming people you disagree with so perhaps it's you that is the ignorant and retarded.

    Next time read better before you flame me for something I did not do or say FOOL

  • I didn't say that you said no good music was being made, I said "recorded", as in without use of superflous studio trickery and effects, so what I could say to you is:

    "Next time read better before you flame me forsomething I did not do or say FOOL"

  • Domitianvs

    I never said recorded at all in any day.

    So you have done it again.

    Your boring me and everyone here with your crap drop it

    Nice try to save your self though

  • Sorry genius, but VICTIM of LUST is correct -o. Thers's no music on radio, both AM & FM that we can listen to in our vehicle or at home. Satellite radio is about the only decent choice of music that we have, and we have to pay for it.

  • He wrote the song about storms that gather over the mountains along the border in Cochise County that look and sound like herds of cattle thundering through the sky.

  • Initially Ghost Riders was turned down by Sons of the Pioneers, although they did eventually record it. It was picked up by Vaughan Monroe and Burl Ives at the same time. Monroe beat Ives in releasing it by a matter of days, and is therefore the first name associated with the introduction of what has become one of the most well-known songs of the Western/cowboy genre of music. Composer Stan Jones was a forest ranger in southern Arizona.

  • Thanks for the correction.

  • I like thgis version! It's not my favorite (The Outlaws is probably because that's the version I heard for so long before the others), but I was surprised to hear Burl sing it so different, I like that! Thanks a lot for posting and the video also!

  • This is the very first recording of Ghost Riders and was a big hit for Burl. The most famous and by far the most popular recording was made the next year by Vaughn Monroe.

  • "The Outlaws" I believe was in the 1960's, this song was well over 10 years old, and done by manny manny singers before they got to it.

  • The Outlaws are a Southern Rock group from the late 70's/early 60's, probably still touring today and making new albums. You can find the song here on da tube. I'll look for ol Vaughn's version, thanks, for the info. It seems there are a lot of Ghost Riders experts on this site! If we had so much interest in curing the cold we may have found a cure by now! LOL.

  • Not one of the best versions--but; Burl Ives

    were SO good!

  • i am going crazy.....how many versions of thise song is there reall??..vaugne monroe, spiderbait, johny cash, outlaws, marty robbins, blues brothers and now burl too??????

  • Well, if you think that there are only 8 or 9, you are in for a shock. :) There are many more. In addition to Vaughan Monroe's #1, there was also a #2 hit by Peggy Lee. In addition to Burl Ives, Bing Crosby recorded it, too. It's been recorded in Spanish as well, and even by the rock group Blondie!

  • Don't forget Kay Starr and Bob Nolan, I just found a new one. I just ordered the CD that it's on. This one is by Nelson Eddy of all people.

  • Burl Ives was the first to record it. Composer was a forest ranger from Arizona named Stan Jones born in 1915. he wrote this in 1948.

  • Let me add some additional trivia. There is an IRA Rebel song by Athenrye called "The SAM Song" which uses the music with totally different lyrics. Also, Stan Jones wrote one other song of note: "Ride Away" the song used in the John Wayne movie "The Searchers". In my opinion Stan Jones hit two grand slams with each song.

  • My favorite rendition is by the great Florida rock and roll band The Outlaws. They really rock it.

  • Living (lived) in Jacksonville Florida I got an earful of the Outlaws singing this on the radio, I admit I like it a whole lot better then listening to Skynard! Also, here's another version that no one listed but I see here on YT, The Scorpians! I'm going to listen to that now! Youtube can be so cool...

  • "how many versions of thise song is there reall?"

    One of my all-time favorite songs. It was the first melody I picked out on a guitar, 40+ years ago. never really did learn to play much, but I can still pick out that melody yet.

    I believe the Blues Brothers also did this in one of their movies, though I don't remember which one.

  • Youtube has at least...14 versions. There are probably hundreds more. Amazing what happens to a great song when it's not copywritten.

  • you're thinking of "rawhide".

  • Beggining of song sounds like james bonD theme xD

  • May be I'm to old, but I have no idea who

    James bonD is.

  • james bond... There are 8 movies.Classic movies, first one came out in 69 i think and this jear they made a new one. You should check it out on youtube.

  • 8 movies? theres 21, now 22.. and they are old well started in 1962