"The Cattle Call" is a song written and recorded in 1934 by American songwriter and musician

Tex Owens Tex Owens (June 15, 1892 – September 9, 1962) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best remembered today for writing the Eddy Arnold hit Cattle Call. The youngest of thirteen children, he was born Doie Hensley Owens in Killeen, T ...

. The melody was adapted from Bruno Rudzinksi's 1928 recording "Pawel Walc". It later became a signature song for

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' country music charts, second onl ...

. Members of the

Western Writers of America Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in th ...

chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Owens wrote the song in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

while watching the snow fall. "Watching the snow, my sympathy went out to

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

everywhere, and I just wished I could call them all around me and break some corn over a wagon wheel and feed them. That's when the words 'cattle call' came to my mind. I picked up my guitar, and in thirty minutes I had wrote the music and four verses to the song," he said. His August 28, 1934 recording was among the first for the newly formed Decca Record Company. He recorded it again in 1936.

Cover versions and later uses

Eddy Arnold recorded "The Cattle Call" four times, at his first session in 1944, 1949, and in 1955 with Hugo Winterhalter's Chorus and Orchestra. The latter version spent 26 weeks on the country chart, peaking at number one for two weeks. Arnold recorded a simpler arrangement in 1963 for the title track of a collection of cowboy and western songs. The song was recorded by

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a singer, and an actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. He was the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John Ritter, grandso ...

(1947),

Carolina Cotton Carolina Cotton (October 20, 1925 – June 10, 1997) was an American singer and actress known as the "Yodeling Blonde Bombshell", the "Girl of the Golden West", and the "Queen of the Range." Early life Cotton was born Helen Hagstrom October 20, ...

(1951) and

Slim Whitman Ottis Dewey "Slim" Whitman Jr. (January 20, 1923 – June 19, 2013) was an American country music singer and guitarist known for his yodeling abilities and his use of falsetto. Recorded figures show 70 million sales, during a career that spanne ...

(1954). Whitman's version peaked at number 11 on the C&W Best Seller chart. Other versions were recorded by Billy Walker (1965),

Donn Reynolds Stanley Beresford "Donn" Reynolds (June 26, 1921 – August 16, 1997) was a Canadian country music singer and yodeler most widely known for his Bavarian style of yodeling. Often referred to as Canada's "king of the yodelers",Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

(1970), Gil Trythall (1971),

Lenny Breau Leonard Harold Breau (August 5, 1941 – August 12, 1984) was an American-Canadian guitarist. He blended many styles of music, including jazz, country, classical, and flamenco. Inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, Breau used finge ...

and

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...

(

Standard Brands Standard Brands was a packaged foods company, formed in 1929 by J. P. Morgan & Co. with the merger of: * Fleischmann Company *Royal Baking Powder Company * E. W. Gillett Company of Canada (1929) - Toronto-based baking goods company (maker of Ma ...

, 1981),

Boxcar Willie Lecil Travis Martin (September 1, 1931 – April 12, 1999), whose stage name was Boxcar Willie, was an American country music singer-songwriter, who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Will ...

(1986),

Don Edwards William Donlon Edwards (January 6, 1915 – October 1, 2015) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and a member of the United States House of Representatives from California for 32 years in the late 20th century. Early life Edwar ...

(1992),

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

(1992), Skip Gorman (1994),

Wylie Gustafson Wylie Galt Gustafson (born June 7, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter who has toured nationally and internationally with his band, "Wylie & The Wild West". The band is known for its blend of cowboy, traditional country, folk and yodeling. Wy ...

(1994),

LeAnn Rimes Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at the age of 13 and has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Christian, and o ...

(1996 with Arnold and on November 16, 1999, Arnold released the recording as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

) and

Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album ''Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.''. Yoakam had considerable s ...

(1998) for the motion picture soundtrack of '' The Horse Whisperer''. Also performed by the

Sons of the Pioneers The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States' earliest Western singing groups. Known for their vocal performances, their musicianship, and their songwriting, they produced innovative recordings that have inspired many Western music per ...

featuring

Ken Curtis Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates; July 2, 1916 – April 28, 1991) was an American actor and singer best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the Western television series ''Gunsmoke''. Early years Born the youngest of three boys in ...

in the movie ''

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

'' (1950). The Eddy Arnold version of the song was heard in the 1997 movie '' Private Parts'' during the scene when

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1 ...

, whose station "W4" in Detroit had just changed formats from rock to country, abruptly resigned on the air telling listeners he didn't understand the music. It was additionally featured in the film ''

My Own Private Idaho ''My Own Private Idaho'' is a 1991 American independent adventure drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's '' Henry IV, Part 1'', '' Henry IV, Part 2'', and '' Henry V''. The story follows two friends, ...

''. In 2023, it was included on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of the film ''

Asteroid City ''Asteroid City'' is a 2023 American Science fiction film, science fiction comedy drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola. It features an ensemble cast, including Jason Schwartzman, ...

'' by

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. Wes Anderson filmography, His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative ...

Charts

Arnold and Rimes' version

Weekly charts

Notes

References

Montana, Daisy "Cattle Call: from Tex Owens to People Like Us" (April 13, 2009) ''Mademoiselle Montana's Yodel Heaven''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cattle Call Songs about cattle 1934 singles 1945 singles 1949 singles 1955 singles 1999 singles Eddy Arnold songs Slim Whitman songs LeAnn Rimes songs 1934 songs Song recordings produced by Chuck Howard