No. 48 in our Best Western Songs countdown. Bing Crosby sounds perfectly at home in the saddle on “I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande.” The trouble is that the character he plays knows a lot more about being a cowboy in his imagination than he does about working cattle. Johnny Mercer lets the singer give himself away, and Crosby makes every boast sound as smooth as the last.
From Rhythm on the Range to a Decca 78
Mercer wrote both the music and lyrics to the song for Rhythm on the Range, the 1936 Paramount Western starring Crosby. The film put Crosby in a cowboy role and gave him a chance to play the song’s jokes against the audience’s expectations of a singing cowboy. American Film Institute catalog
Crosby recorded the commercial version with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra on July 17, 1936. Decca issued it on a 78 rpm record, catalog number 871, backed with “I Can’t Escape from You.” The same recording later appeared in the Decca Cowboy Songs set. Discography of American Historical Recordings · Smithsonian record collection
The joke is in the way he sings it
The singer claims the Rio Grande as his home and talks up his cowboy credentials, but his everyday experience keeps poking holes in the story. Mercer puts modern life inside an old Western pose. Crosby barely has to wink. His relaxed delivery leaves room for the jokes to land, while the orchestra gives the number enough swing to carry it outside the movie.
That balance is what makes the record so much fun to return to. You can hear it as a send-up of the screen cowboy, or simply enjoy Crosby’s timing and the way the band bounces along behind him. Either way, the punch line depends on how fondly the song treats the very tradition it teases.
The Western Writers of America countdown reproduced by Dave’s Music Database places the song at No. 48 and lists 1935. This entry uses 1936, the year documented for Crosby’s recording and the film. Western Writers of America ranking
Hear another song Crosby introduced in Rhythm on the Range in our feature on “Empty Saddles.”
Explore more songs in our Best Western countdown.