“Back In The Saddle Again” – this classic Western tune was the signature song of Gene Autry, the silver screen’s first singing cowboy. Ray Whitley, a country singer and actor, wrote the song and introduced it with his group The Six Bar Cowboys in the 1938 movie Border G-Man. Soon after, he recorded it as Ray Whitley’s Rangers for Decca Records and caught the attention of Autry, who relished the idea of getting back on a trusty horse and ridin’ the range, totin’ an old .44. Whitley and Autry retooled the tune for Autry’s next picture, Rovin’ Tumbleweeds (1939), and the single became his second gold record. He recorded it twice more, in 1946 and 1952, and used it as the theme song for his radio program Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch and his television show The Gene Autry Show. It was also the title theme to his 1941 film Back In The Saddle. Autry, who served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, wished he would have saved the title for his first post-war film, which ended up being 1946’s Sioux City Sue. Biographer Rothel explained: “There was a fair amount of fanfare when he came out of the service and he was back in the saddle again. And there was a lot of that post-war feeling that, you know, getting back into the swing of things.” Autry’s 1939 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1997.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
