When Stan Jones (1914-1963) was working as a park ranger in Death Valley, California by the late 1940s, he was also writing songs and would often sing one he had written, “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” while guiding Hollywood scouts looking for locations to film.
Jones eventually began composing songs for Western films by John Ford, including the John Wayne classics, Rio Grande (1950) and The Searchers (1956), and also worked for Disney Studios, where he co-wrote the theme song for the TV Western Cheyenne. Throughout the mid-’50s through early ’60s, Jones also dabbled in acting, including a role as a sergeant in Rio Grande, before his death from cancer in 1963.
Throughout his brief career, Jones had more than 100 recorded songs that he had written, but it was that first one that he sang as a campfire song in Death Valley that brought him the most fame early on.
Once released, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” became a cowboy standard, but Jones lyrics told a daker story of a cowboy being chased by the spirits in the skies, trying to make him to join them and rangle the Devil’s herd. The story was based on European folklore of the Wild Hunt Jones remembered being told as a child about ghostly figures coming after the living.
An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge, he rested as he went along his way
When all at once, a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
A plowing through the ragged skies
And up a cloudy draw
Yippee-yi-ay, yippee-yi-o
The ghost herd in the sky
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Their brands were still on fire and their hooves was made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny, and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the riders comin’ hard
And he heard their mournful cry
Yippee-yi-ay, yippee-yi-o
Ghost riders in the sky
In 1948, Jones recorded a version of the song, and the Bob Geddins Cavaliers were the first to release it. A year after its release, everyone from Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, Peggy Lee, and Gene Autry had already recorded covers of the song, sometimes titled “Riders in the Sky.”
In the decades since its release, the song has been reimagined nearly 500 times across all genres. There’s even an unreleased recording of the song by George Harrison and Bob Dylan at Columbia Studio in 1970.
Here’s a look behind some of those renditions and the others that followed throughout nearly 70 years.
Bing Crosby (1949)
After the first release of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” by the Bob Geddins Cavaliers in 1948, Burl Ives was the next artist to cover the song in March of 1949. That same month, Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra also recorded a version, which was the first version to hit the Billboard chart and reach No. 1. A month later, Bing Crosby had a go with the song, along with the Ken Darby Singers, which peaked at No. 14.
Peggy Lee (1949)
In April of 1949, Peggy Lee was the first woman to record “Riders in the Sky.” Backed by the Jud Conlon Singers and Dave Barbour and His Orchestra, Lee’s melodic rendition went to No. 2 on the Billboard Most Played By Disc Jockeys list.
Tom Jones (1967)
Tom Jones recorded a more danceable version on his sixth album, Green, Green Grass of Home, from 1967. He later performed “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” on his TV show, This Is Tom Jones, in 1969, while riding a motorbike surrounded by a group of dancing “ghosts.”
Johnny Cash (1979)
The Highwaymen (Live, 1990)
Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson (VH1 Storytellers, 1998)
“(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” was a song that also followed Johnny Cash around for more than 20 years since his first recording of it on his 1979 album Silver; his version peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. On March 14, 1990, Cash, along with fellow Highwaymen Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, performed the song during a concert at Nassau Coliseum in New York, later released on their 2016 album American Outlaws (Live).
A little more than a decade after the Highwaymen performance, Nelson and Cash teamed up again for a chilling rendition of “Riders in the Sky” for an episode of VH1 Storytellers and performed a duet of the Jones standard.
Elvis Presley (Recorded in 1970; released in 2001)
In June of 1970, Elvis Presley recorded “Riders in the Sky” during his Las Vegas rehearsals at the MGM soundstage in Culver City, California. The recording was messy, and laughter could be heard in the background as they played through the song, and it was never meant for release or inclusion on Presley’s 1970 album That’s the Way It Was. Presley’s version of Jones’ classic was released more than 30 years later on the Elvis: That’s The Way It Is deluxe edition in 2001.
Judy Collins (2010)
Released in 2010, Judy Collins‘ Paradise featured covers by Joan Baez (“Diamonds and Rust”), a duet with old flame Stephen Stills on Tom Paxton’s 1964 song “Last Thing on My Mind,” and a Collins original, “Kingdom Come.” Collins saved the penultimate track for a cover of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.”
DevilDriver (2018)
Featuring John Carter Cash, Ana Cristina Cash, and Randy Blythe (Lamb of God)
In 2018, the metal band DevilDriver collaborated with Johnny Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, his wife Ana Cristina Cash, and Lamb of God‘s Randy Blythe for one of the heaviest covers of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.” It’s featured on their album Outlaws ’til the End: Vol. 1, a collection of outlaw country covers of songs by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings, among others, with special guests, including Glenn Danzig, Testament’s Chuck Billy, Lee Ving of FEAR, and more.
Photo: Johnny Cash at the Savoy Hotel in London, September 17, 1959. (Daily Herald/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
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