Sunday Concert - Gene Autry

For a change of pace this summer we will be doing a Sunday Concert series.  This time we will go into the way-back machine to one of the most popular artists of all time, Gene Autry.  I can't stand the singing boyboy short films of the 1930s and 40s, but the music is great.


Orvon Grover Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.

From 1934 to 1959, Autry appeared in 94 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans.

Autry was also one of the most important figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience. In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again", Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus", which he wrote, "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".



Ghost Riders in the Sky   (1949)

Back In The Saddle Again   (1939)
This track from 1939 Columbia 78 recording.

Buttons and Bows  (1948)
#17 hit on the US charts

Home Home On The Range

Don't Fence Me In   (1945) 
#5 on the US Country Music chart

 

"South of the Border"   (1939)
One of "The Singing Cowboy"'s finest numbers, from the Republic picture "Down Mexico Way".

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

South of the border, down Mexico way,
That's where I fell in love
When the stars above came out to play.
And now as I wander, my thoughts ever stray
South of the border, down Mexico way.

She was a picture in old Spanish lace.
And for a tender while
I kissed the smile upon her face.
For it was fiesta, and we were so gay
South of the border, Mexico way.

Then she sighed as she whispered 'manana'
Never dreaming that we were parting.
And I lied as I whispered 'manana'
For our tomorrow never came.

South of the border, I rode back one day
There in a veil of white by candlelight
She knelt to pray.
The mission bells told me that I mustn't stay
South of the border, down Mexico way.



You Are My Sunshine   (1941)

Blueberry Hill (1941) 
The first recorded version ever recorded of this song.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer   (1949)
#1 hit on the US charts



Gene Autry at his Angels Stadium