''Cowboy Songs'' is a compilation album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby released in 1939 featuring

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

songs.

Background

Crosby had recorded cowboy songs for the first time in 1933 and he had a huge hit with "The Last Round-Up" that year on the Brunswick label. He recorded "

Home on the Range "Home on the Range" is a classic cowboy song, sometimes called the "unofficial anthem" of the American West. Dr. Brewster M. Higley (also spelled Highley) of Smith County, Kansas, wrote the lyrics as the poem "My Western Home" in 1872 or 1873 ...

" for the first time then also. Commenting on these early recordings, the writer

Gary Giddins Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986 Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a ...

said "…it anticipated the golden age of gentle-voiced singing cowboys and the Irish sentiment of John Ford westerns that followed on their heels." Moving on to the Decca label, Crosby had huge hits with " I’m an Old Cowhand", " Empty Saddles" and " Mexicali Rose". He also charted with "My Little Buckaroo" and "There’s a Gold Mine in the Sky". Giddins considered Bing's recordings in his book saying: "The most impressive of his new cowboy songs (including "We’ll Rest at the End of the Trail", "A Roundup Lullaby", "Empty Saddles") was "Twilight on the Trail", a lament introduced that year by Fuzzy Knight in ''The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'' and sung by Bing as though it were an old western hymn. That's how it may have sounded to President Roosevelt, who declared it his favorite song after "Home on the Range"; Mrs. Roosevelt requested Bing's record for the Roosevelt Library."

Original track listing

These previously issued songs were featured on a 6-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album No. 69. Disc 1: (2676) Disc 2: (2677) Disc 3: (2678) Disc 4: (2679) Disc 5: (2237) Disc 6: (2001)

References

{{Bing Crosby Bing Crosby compilation albums 1939 compilation albums Decca Records compilation albums Country music compilation albums Country albums by American artists