Red River Valley

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Carl T. Sprague - Cowboy Love Song (1925)

Red River Valley is an instrumental piece that originated in 19th century North America and was first released commercially as a Cowboy Love Song in 1925 . It was also known in Europe in 1959 under the title Red River Rock in the version of Johnny and the Hurricanes .

History of origin

Hugh Cross & Riley Puckett - Red River Valley (1927)
Andrews Sisters - Red River Valley (1944)

The genesis goes back even further than 1925. The Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke assumes that the song was already known in at least five Canadian provinces before 1896. The vocal music was about the lost love of an Indian woman for a British soldier during the Red River Rebellion from November 1869 in the former Ruperts Land . The text about the love affair later changed to a relationship between a teacher and a cowboy. The oldest known manuscript, entitled Red River Valley, is dated 1879 ( Nemaha) and 1885 ( Harlan ). Of the two US rivers with the name Red River , the Red River of the North is meant. Under the title In the Bright Mohawk Valley , the song was released in New York with the author James J. Kerrigan, copyrighted June 4, 1896 and sung by John W. Rice. This version was brought out by Carl Sandburg in his American Songbag in 1927 .

First cover versions

Country singer Carl T. Sprague recorded the song on August 5, 1925 as a Cowboy Love Song for the first time commercially ( Victor Records 20067). Kelly Harrell offers the song under the title The Bright Sherman Valley (Victor 20527; June 9, 1926). It was first published as Red River Valley by Hugh Cross & Riley Puckett ( Columbia Records 15206; November 3, 1927). Jules Allen's Cowboy's Love Song (Victor 40167; March 28, 1929) made the song popular. Gene Autry took it again under the music title Red River Valley on January 16, 1935 for the subsequently named movie Red River Valley (premiere: March 2, 1936; German: "Dynamit für Schleuse 5"). The film itself begins with an instrumental orchestral version of Red River Valley , and Autry sings the song in the saloon. The radio soap Opera Our Gal Sunday used Red River Valley between March 29, 1937 and January 2, 1959 as a theme song . During this time, numerous versions were published such as by Texas Jim Robertson (Victor 27552; March 7, 1941), Woody Guthrie ( Asch Recordings , April 19, 1944), Andrews Sisters ( Decca Records 18780; May 2, 1944), Tex Ritter ( May 14, 1945), Bill Haley & The Four Aces Of Western Swing (radio recording 1948) or Eddy Arnold (May 1, 1955). Instrumental versions of the piece can also be heard in the opening credits of John Ford's literary film adaptation of the Fruits of Wrath (1940) as well as at the beginning and at the end of the classic film Ritt zum Ox-Bow (1943).

Version of Johnny & the Hurricanes

Johnny and the Hurricanes - Red River Rock (1959)

Johnny & The Hurricanes picked up the now popular song in their rock & roll instrumental version. In June 1959, manager Harry Balk brought his instrumental band Johnny & the Hurricanes to New York's Bell Sound Recording Studios to record the track. During a break from recording he noticed organist Paul Tesluk experimenting. After the request to repeat these passages again, Red River Rock was created as a variation of the original. The single Red River Rock / Buckeye (Warwick M509) was released in July 1959 and was reviewed by Billboard on July 13, 1959. It is a melody carried by the Hammond B-3 organ (Paul Tesluk) with licks from the roaring tenor saxophone (Johnny Paris) and a middle section for guitar (Dave Yorko). The cast also included Lionel "Butch" Mattice (bass) and Tony Kaye (drums). Since the song is in the public domain , Fred Mendelsohn / Ira Mack (Irving Micahnik) / Tom King (Harry Balk) are registered as arrangers . The latter were managers of the band as well as the producers and founders of Twirl Records . Fred Mendelsohn was a music producer at Savoy Records . With rank 5 in the US pop hit parade and rank 3 in the British and German charts, it achieved the highest ranking of all versions that made the folk and country song known to the pop world. The Johnny & The Hurricanes version sold over 1 million copies.

More cover versions

The different title variants - such as "Red River Valley Rock" by Gene Redd - make it difficult to quantify the cover versions , of which there are at least 70. Based on the hit by Johnny & The Hurricanes, lyricist Joachim Relin created a German text for Friedel Hensch and the Cyprys under the title Come back in the valley of uns'rer dreams (December 1959; rank 3). Connie Francis (October 1961), Marty Robbins (with the Nashville A-Team ; May 25, 1960), Pete Seeger (LP American Favorite Ballads Vol. 5 ; January 1962) and The Ventures (January 1963) followed in the USA . The even faster offbeat version of Silicon Teens (October 1987) appeared in the movie Plains, Trains and Automobiles ( One Ticket for Two ; November 25, 1987).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edith Fowke, The Red River Valley Re-Examined , in: Western Folklore, 1964, pp. 163 ff.
  2. ^ The Red River Valley , The University of Iowa Libraries
  3. It is the only US river that drains into the Arctic Ocean via Lake Winnipeg
  4. James J. Fuld, The Book of World Famous Music , 2000, p. 457.
  5. Carl Sandburg, American Songbag , 1927 S. 130th
  6. a b Don Cusic, Gene Autry: His Life and Career , 2007, p 56 f.
  7. David A. Carson, Grit, Noise, & Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll , 2006, p. 41 f.
  8. ^ Johnny & The Hurricanes - Red River Rock. Retrieved March 25, 2013 .
  9. ^ Josef Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 130.
  10. Filmography by type for Silicon Teens. Retrieved March 26, 2013 .