Eddy Arnold – Cattle Call, a song written and recorded for the first time by Tex Owens for the Decca label, was recorded on August 28, 1934, in Chicago, IL.
Eddy Arnold & His Tennessee Plowboys, recorded it for the Bluebird label, on December 4, 1944, at WSM Radio Station Studio, Nashville, TN, in the recording session they played: Eddy Arnold (vocal), Herbert M. Paige (lead guitar), Little Roy Wiggins (steel), Gaylord B. “Gabe” Tucker (bass / tpt) and James McNatt (fiddle). The song was released in June 1945. In the Country & Western charts, it reached number # 5. This version of the song was only recorded in single, and was not included on any album.
On September 14, 1949, he would re-record the song for the RCA label, at RCA Victor Studio No. 1, 155 East 24th St., Manhattan, New York City, possibly this version was included in an Ep, which was released in 1952, Eddy Arnold Sings (RCA 1952).
On September 19, 1961, Eddy, would again recorded the song for the RCA label, was recorded at RCA Victor Studio, 1611 Hawkins St., Nashville, TN, in the recording session Eddy was accompanied by: Roy Wiggins (guitar), Velma Smith (guitar), Henry Strzelecki (bass), Buddy Harman (drums), Floyd Cramer (piano) and Anita Kerr Singers. This version would be included in Eddy’s studio album, Cattle Call (RCA 1963).
In the fall of 1996, at Curb Studios, Nashville, TN, Eddy re-recorded the duo song with Lee Ann Rimes, the song was included in Lee Ann Rimes’ debut album, Blue (Curb 1996)
It became a signature song for Eddy Arnold. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Little story about the song:
Owens wrote the song in Kansas City while watching the snow fall. “Watching the snow, my sympathy went out to cattle 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 written the music and four verses to the song, “he said.
Eddy Arnold – Cattle Call lyrics
[Moan]
The cattle are prowlin’ the coyotes are howlin’
Out with the doggies bawl
Where spurs are jinglin’ a cowboy is singin’
This lonesome cattle call [moan]
He rides in the sun till his day’s work is done
And he rounds up the cattle each fall
[Moan] Singin’ this cattle call
For hours he will ride on the range far and wide
When the night wind blows up a squall
His heart is a feather in all kinds of weather
He sings his cattle call [moan]
He’s brown as a berry from ridin’ the prairie
And he sings with an old western drawl
[Moan] Singin’ this cattle call… [moan]
GENIUS
