The Cattle Call

Last updated
"The Cattle Call"
Single by Tex Owens
B-side Pride of the Prairie [1]
PublishedSeptember 14, 1934 (1934-09-14) by Forster Music Publisher, Inc., Chicago [2]
ReleasedOctober 1934 (1934-10) [1]
RecordedAugust 28, 1934 (1934-08-28) [3]
Studio Chicago, Illinois [3]
Genre Folk
Length3:09
Label Decca 5015 [1]
Songwriter(s) Tex Owens [2]

"The Cattle Call" is a song written and recorded in 1934 by American songwriter and musician Tex Owens. [4] The melody was adapted from Bruno Rudzinksi's 1928 recording "Pawel Walc". [5] It later 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. [6]

Contents

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 wrote the music and four verses to the song," he said. [7] His August 28, 1934 recording was among the first for the newly formed Decca Record Company. [3] He recorded it again in 1936.

"The Cattle Call"
Single by Eddy Arnold and his Tennessee Plowboys
B-side Each Minute Seems a Million Years [8]
ReleasedMay 14, 1945 (1945-05-14) [8]
RecordedDecember 4, 1944 (1944-12-04) [9]
Studio WSM Radio Station Studio, Nashville, TN [9]
Genre Hillbilly-Country
Length3:06
Label Bluebird 33-0527 [8]
"The Cattle Call"
Single by Eddy Arnold
from the album Eddy Arnold Sings
ReleasedNovember 18, 1949 (1949-11-18) [10]
RecordedSeptember 14, 1949 (1949-09-14) [9]
Length2:27
Label RCA Victor 48-0136 [10]
Producer(s) Stephen H. Sholes [9]
Eddy Arnold singles chronology
"One Kiss Too Many / The Echo of Your Footsteps"
(1949)		"The Cattle Call"
(1949)		"I'm Throwing Rice (At The Girl That I Love)"
(1949)
"The Cattle Call"
Single by Eddy Arnold with Hugo Winterhalter's Orchestra And Chorus
ReleasedJune 14, 1955 (1955-06-14) [11]
RecordedApril 28, 1955 (1955-04-28)
Studio Webster Hall, New York City
Length2:34
Label RCA Victor 20-6139 [11]
Producer(s) Stephen H. Sholes
"Cattle Call"
Single by Eddy Arnold with LeAnn Rimes
from the album Seven Decades of Hits and Blue
B-side "I Walk Alone"
ReleasedNovember 16, 1999 (1999-11-16) [12]
Recorded1996
Length3:09
Label Curb
Songwriter(s) Tex Owens
Producer(s)
  • Chuck Howard
  • Wilbur C. Rimes
  • Bob Campbell-Smith
  • Johnny Mulhair
  • Greg Walker
LeAnn Rimes singles chronology
"Big Deal"
(1999)		"Cattle Call"
(1999)		"Crazy"
(1999)

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. [13] 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 (1947), Carolina Cotton (1951) and Slim Whitman (1954). Whitman's version peaked at number 11 on the C&W Best Seller chart. [14]

Other versions were recorded by Billy Walker (1965), Donn Reynolds (1965), Elvis Presley (1970), Gil Trythall (1971), Lenny Breau and Chet Atkins (Standard Brands, 1981), Boxcar Willie (1986), Don Edwards (1992), Emmylou Harris (1992), Skip Gorman (1994), Wylie Gustafson (1994), LeAnn Rimes (1996 with Arnold and on November 16, 1999, Arnold released the recording as a single [12] ) and Dwight Yoakam (1998) for the motion picture soundtrack of The Horse Whisperer . [15] Also performed by the Sons of the Pioneers featuring Ken Curtis in the movie Rio Grande (1950).

The Eddy Arnold version of the song was heard in the 1997 movie Private Parts during the scene when Howard Stern, 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 . In 2023, it was included on the soundtrack of the film Asteroid City by Wes Anderson.

Charts

Arnold and Rimes' version

Weekly charts

Chart (1999)Peak
position
US Top Country Singles Sales ( Billboard ) [16]
18

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Decca 5015 (10-in. double-faced)". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  2. 1 2 Library of Congress. Copyright Office. (1934). Catalog of Copyright Entries 1934 Musical Compositions New Series Vol 29 Pt 3 For the Year 1934. United States Copyright Office. U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  3. 1 2 3 "Decca matrix C 9355. Cattle call / Tex Owens". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  4. ↑ "ASCAP ACE - Search Results". Archived from the original on 2006-02-12. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
  5. ↑ Sullivan, Steve (2017). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. p. 190.
  6. ↑ Western Writers of America (2010). "The Top 100 Western Songs". American Cowboy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "Nashville Songwriter's Foundation -". www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "Bluebird 33-0527 (33-0500 series (10-in. Country songs))". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Victor matrix D4AB-0519. The cattle call / Eddy Arnold; Tennessee Plowboys". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  10. 1 2 "Victor 21-0133 (10-in. double-faced). Eddy Arnold Sings (Album P-260)". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  11. 1 2 "RCA Victor 78rpm numerical listing discography: 20-6000 - 6500". www.78discography.com. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  12. 1 2 "Eddie Arnold - Cattle Call [CD5/Cassette Single] Album Reviews, Songs & More". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  13. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 31.
  14. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 383.
  15. ↑ "Cattle Call: from Tex Owens to People Like Us | Mademoiselle Montana's Yodel Heaven". Mademoisellemontana.wordpress.com. 13 April 2009. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  16. ↑ "Billboard Top Country Singles Sales" (PDF). Billboard . Retrieved 16 October 2023.

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References

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