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Originally (Ghost) Riders in the Sky was an old cowboy song by Vaughan Monroe from 1949. The Ventures version was clearly in the same style as The Ramrods' instrumental hit from 1961. (The Scorpions - a British three-piece guitar outfit) also did a very different-sounding version around that time. Jet Harris included it in his live shows in the 1970s (a recording exists on his Inside LP) and he reckoned that's where The Shadows got the idea to do their disco-orientated recording on String of Hits in 1979 (a top 10 hit for them in 1980). This might be true, but it seems more likely that it was one of a series of '50s/'60s instrumentals which The Shadows hadn't recorded in the '60s - but which they did versions of from Walk Don't Run in 1977 (on Tasty) up to Diamonds from XXV in 1983. (Others include...from the top of my head (!)... Telstar, Albatross, Time is Tight and Raunchy).

When thinking of songs that both The Ventures and The Shadows have recorded - surely Slaughter on Tenth Avenue has to be up there; two quite different versions but both magnificent (even if Peter Gormley thought The Shadows recording was "bloody boring"!)

Iain Purdon wrote:I feel the word cover doesn’t really fit for Riders. With or without ‘ghost’, the song had been around for many years. It certainly wasn’t ‘originally’ associated with the Ventures. If there’s a connection with any previous one at all for the Shadows - and I’m not sure there is - it would be with the old Ramrods version, which ends with a burst of Apache.

Ghost riders in the sky is a song from 1948, it has also been covered as a guitar instrumental by the Spotnicks (1961), long before the Shadows.

Moderne wrote:Originally (Ghost) Riders in the Sky was an old cowboy song by Vaughan Monroe from 1949. The Ventures version was clearly in the same style as The Ramrods' instrumental hit from 1961. (The Scorpions - a British three-piece guitar outfit) also did a very different-sounding version around that time. Jet Harris included it in his live shows in the 1970s (a recording exists on his Inside LP) and he reckons that's where The Shadows got the idea to do their disco-orientated recording on String of Hits in 1979 (a top 10 hit for them in 1980). This might be true, but it seems more likely that it was one of a series of '50s/'60s instrumentals which The Shadows hadn't recorded in the '60s - but which they did versions of from Walk Don't Run in 1977 (on Tasty) up to Diamonds from XXV in 1983. (Others include...from the top of my head (!)... Telstar, Albatross, Time is Tight and Raunchy).

When thinking of songs that both The Ventures and The Shadows have recorded - surely Slaughter on Tenth Avenue has to be up there; two quite different versions but both magnificent (even if Peter Gormley thought The Shadows recording was "bloody boring"!)

It seems there was quite a race to record Riders... in early 1949, immediately following its composition by Stan Jones, with Jones's own version competing with those by Burl Ives, Vaughn Monroe and the rest.

I have to admit that Slaughter on Tenth Avenue didn't loom largely in my mind (Brian Bennett's first major arranging assignment, I think) although it is certainly an impressive piece, but never a particular favourite of mine - to some extent I can see Peter Gormley's point! A different discussion perhaps?

Bill

My opinion is that the Shads' version of SOTA makes that of the Ventures sound positively ordinary by comparison!

GoldenStreet wrote:It seems there was quite a race to record Riders... in early 1949, immediately following its composition by Stan Jones, with Jones's own version competing with those by Burl Ives, Vaughn Monroe and the rest.

There have also been covers in France with french lyrics, and renamed "Les cavaliers du ciel" by "Les compagnons de la chanson", "Armand Mestral" and some others. I remember my parents had the Armand Mestral's version on a 78rpm disc.