Red River Valley (song)
"Red River Valley" is a folk song and cowboy music standard of uncertain origins that has gone by different names, depending on where it has been sung. It is listed as Roud Folk Song Index 756 and by Edith Fowke as FO 13. It is recognizable by its chorus :
Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time, ranked #10.
Origins
According to Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke, she offers anecdotal evidence that the song was known in at least five Canadian provinces before 1896. This finding led to speculation that the song was composed at the time of the 1870 Wolseley Expedition to Manitoba's northern Red River Valley. It expresses the sorrow of a local woman as her soldier lover prepares to return to the east.The earliest known written manuscript of the lyrics, titled "The Red River Valley", bears the notations "Nemaha 1879" and "Harlan 1885." Nemaha and Harlan are the names of counties in Nebraska, and are also the names of towns in Iowa.
The song appears in sheet music, titled "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", printed in New York in 1896 with James J. Kerrigan as the writer. The tune and lyrics were collected and published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag.
In 1925, Carl T. Sprague, an early singing cowboy from Texas, recorded it as "Cowboy Love Song", but it was fellow Texan Jules Verne Allen's 1929 "Cowboy's Love Song", that gave the song its greatest popularity. Allen himself thought the song was from Pennsylvania, perhaps brought over from Europe.
Another important recording in this song's history was the 1927 Columbia Records master performed by Hugh Cross and Riley Puckett, under the actual title of "Red River Valley". This was the very first commercially available recording of this song under its most familiar title, and was the inspiration for many of the recordings that followed.
Jimmie Rodgers wrote new lyrics titled Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea and recorded by himself in 1928.
Recordings
- 1926 Kelly Harrell "Bright Sherman Valley".
- 1927 Hugh Cross and Riley Puckett "Red River Valley".
- 1928 Jimmie Rodgers "Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea".
- 1944 Woody Guthrie for Asch Recordings 19 April 1944. Guthrie also recorded for Asch the Spanish Civil War version, "Jarama Valley".
- 1946 Gene Autry recorded "Red River Valley" for Columbia Records on August 30, 1946 which issued in 1947 with the 78 rpm set Gene Autry's Western Classics and later appeared on various compilations including The Gene Autry Collection and The Essential Gene Autry 1933-1946.
- 1947–50 Bill Haley and the Four Aces of Western Swing – vocal by Tex King.
- 1948 Jo Stafford and the Starlighters recorded August 28, 1948 for Capitol Records
- 1950s Jack Arthur for Peter Pan Records.
- 1955 Norman Luboff Choir – the song was featured in their album Songs of the West.
- 1959 Bing Crosby recorded the song for his album How the West Was Won.
- In the 1950s and 1960s, Al Hurricane recorded an instrumental version, which was released as a single by Warner Records, it was also released on the much later 1973 album Instrumentales con Al Hurricane. This version's pacing would become the basis for the popular 1959 Johnny and the Hurricanes "Red River Rock" version of the song. The track made use of traditional New Mexico music and Western music, while mixing rock and early electronic music synthesizers.
- 1961 Connie Francis recorded "Red River Valley" for her 1961 album release Connie Francis Sings Folk Song Favorites.
- 1963 The Ventures released a version on their 1963 Dolton album The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull, BST 8019.
- 1977 Slim Whitman's version was included on his 1977 #1 UK album Red River Valley.
- 2004 Don Edwards recorded a version on The Last of The Troubadours: Saddle Songs Vol II
- 2019 Bill Frisell included the son in his album Harmony.
- A Czech version by Helena Vondráčková also exists.
- Estonian version with Harald Ferdinand Suurkask's words Kaugel, Kaugel, kus on minu kodu has been performed by many artists including Ivo Linna, Tarmo Pihlap & Apelsin, Lindpriid and Parvepoisid.
and George Strait.
Film appearances
- 1936, Gene Autry sang the song in the Republic film Red River Valley and, with the Cass County Boys, sang the song again in the 1946 film Sioux City Sue.
- 1940, It was particularly memorable in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, whose tale of displaced Oklahomans associated it with the southern Red River.
- 1943, An instrumental version appeared in the film The Ox-Bow Incident.
- 1962, An instrumental version played on a harp by Harpo Marx in Episode 1-4 "The Musicale" of ABC's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a sitcom starring Fess Parker, based on the 1939 Frank Capra film. This was Harpo Marx's last television appearance.
- 1971, Another film in which it had important – but more subtle – usage in was The Last Picture Show a film about the internal decay of small town Texas in the early 1950s.
- 1979, Carol Connors sang it in the X-rated Movie Sweet Savage.
- 1981, Lorraine De Selle and Zora Ulla Keslerová sing the song in video nasty Cannibal Ferox.
- 1987, An electronic rendition of "Red River Rock" was recorded by Silicon Teens, and featured in the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
- 1990, Played in the film score when the gang member played by David Morse meets his demise in the movie Desperate Hours
- 1993, Dana Delany sang it in the film Tombstone, though not in its entirety.
- 2006, Sung by Garrison Keillor and cast in the film A Prairie Home Companion.
- 2012 “Hemingway & Gellhorn”
- 2014, A part of the song was sung in the film Wild by child actor Evan O'Toole during a scene with Reese Witherspoon.
- 2017, Harry Dean Stanton sang it in Part 10 of Twin Peaks .
- 2017, Harmonica version played repeatedly in the film Lucky.
Other cultural references
- The song is played by Randall in Recess in the episode One Stayed Clean while he is sitting with TJ, Gus and the diggers in their hole. In the episode, the gang helps Gus stay clean so he can have a great school photo.
- "Red River Valley" was the theme song of Our Gal Sunday, a soap opera broadcast on CBS radio from 1937 to 1959.
- "Jarama Valley", a song about the Battle of Jarama of the Spanish Civil War, used the tune to "Red River Valley". It was recorded by Woody Guthrie and The Almanac Singers, featuring Pete Seeger.
- The tune to "Red River Valley", set to new lyrics and entitled "Can I Sleep In Your Arms", was used on Willie Nelson's 1975 album Red Headed Stranger. This version was based on the song "Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight Mister."
- Johnny Cash wrote and performed a humorous song entitled "Please Don't Play Red River Valley" for his 1966 album Everybody Loves a Nut
- Bob Dylan wrote and recorded "Red River Shore" -- which uses motifs and plays with themes from "Red River Valley" -- for Time Out of Mind. Left off the album, two versions of it were included in ' in 2008.
- The Kidsongs Kids parodied this song on their 1995 Let's Put on a Show video as "We'll Put on a Show".
- The Swedish song "I'm a Lapp", recorded in 1959 by Sven-Gösta Jonsson, is based on the melody of "Red River Valley."
- Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded a rock and roll instrumental version in 1959 of the song entitled "Red River Rock" which became a hit in both the U.S. and in the UK.
- The tune of "Red River Valley" was used for the verses of the 1963 Connie Francis hit "Drownin' My Sorrows".
- "Drownin' My Sorrows" was covered in German as "Ich tausche mit keinem auf der Welt" in 1964 by Margot Eskens and in Croatian as "Uz Tebe Sam Sretna" in 1968 by :hr:Ana Štefok|Ana Štefok.
- The premier Czech vocalist Helena Vondráčková made her recording debut in September 1964 with "Červená řeka", a rendering of "Red River Valley".
- A fatalistic chorus can be found in some sources related to F-105 pilots in Vietnam:
- In its soundtrack, the 2010 video game ' adapted the lyrics and tune of "Red River Valley" as "New Vegas Valley".
- The first 4 verses of the chant "Scouser Tommy", sung by supporters of Liverpool F.C., is to the tune of "Red River Valley".