"(Ghost) Riders in The Sky" has been recorded by artists as diverse as Burl Ives, Vaughn Monroe, Johnny Cash, Debbie Harry, the Outlaws, and the Blues Brothers.
Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) and Mighty Mack (John Goodman) are on vocals for the Blues Brothers' cover, from 1998's "Blues Brothers 2000". When Buster (J. Evan Bonifant) pulls out a harmonica, the actual playing is performed by Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, who appears in the movie, in addition to dubbing Bonifant's harp playing.
When I first heard "Riders", it was Johnny Cash's version in 1979, while I was in high school. The chorus is flipped just a wee bit, but Elwood messes up the 1st chorus ("Ghost herd in the sky"? Seriously?). Cash and the Highwaymen went with the reversed lyrics in the chorus in concert a few years earlier.
Nostalgia (is good stalgia):
ReplyDeleteThe first version of Ghost Riders that I ever heard was as a 10-year-old - by Spike Jones and the City Slickers.
The record would date to the late '40s or early '50s: the principal vocalists were "I.W. Harper" (guitarist Dick 'Ickey' Morgan doing a raucous drunk voice) and "Sir Frederick Gas" (Earl Bennett in a high piping voice).
What I remember now is the conclusion, as sung by "The Sons Of The Sons Of The Backwoodsmen":
L - A - V - A , L - A -V -A
When Johnny comes marching home again
Hooray hooray
We'll make the guy who wrote this song
Pay and pay
'Cause all we hear are Ghost Riders
Sung by Vaughn Monroe!
Morgan: I can do without his singing ...
Gas: ... but I wish I had his dough ...
When Vaughn Monroe heard this, he used his position as an RCA stockholder to force Spike Jones to rerecord the finish of the song.
Seeing as how Burl Ives recorded his version in 1948, "(Ghost) Riders" does date back to the mid-to-late 40's at the earliest.
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