Gunfighter Ballads

Three of my favorite childhood cowboy albums: Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins which was released on the Columbia Records label in September 1959. The song El Paso was no. 1 on both the country and pop music charts. Contains the classics Big Iron, Cool Water, They’re Hanging me Tonight, and El Paso. Another great Robbins cowboy song on this album, Running Gun, can be viewed HERE. Both Frankie Lane and Robbins recorded Cool Water, written by Canadian Bob Nolan.



Hell Bent for Leather by Frankie Laine from 1961. Jazz vocalist Frankie Laine knocked the kids out with Rawhide, Mule Train, The Hanging Tree and the awesome Cry of the Wild Goose. A version of Rawhide with archival footage of midget cowboys by the Dead Kennedys is HERE.



High Noon by Tex Ritter. Not sure of the date on this one but highlights are Blood on the Saddle and Red Brahma Bull. A wonderfully funny movie clip HERE has old Tex bringing his grizzled sidekick to tears singing Blood on the Saddle.

Gunfighter Ballads by Marty Robbins >

Side One

Big Iron

Cool Water

Billy the Kid

A Hundred and Sixty acres

They’re Hanging me Tonight

Strawberry Roan

Side Two

El Paso

In the Valley

The Master’s Call

Running Gun

Down in the Little Green Valley

Utah Carroll

Hell Bent for Leather by Frankie Laine >

Side One

Wanted Man

High Noon

Gunfight at OK Corral

Bowie Knife

Along the Navaho Trail

The Cry of the Wild Goose

Side Two

Rawhide

City Boy

Cool Water

The 3:10 to Yuma

The Hanging Tree

Mule Train

High Noon by Tex Ritter >

Side One

High Noon (Do not Forsake Me)

This Land is your Land

Bury me not on the Lone Prairie

Blood on the Saddle

You don’t Know me

Side Two

The Wayward Wind

Barbara Allan

The Streets of Laredo

Bad Brahma Bull