Singing orchestra leader Vaughn Monroe would have been quite happy just playing his trumpet and leading his swing band. But when he stepped up to the microphone to sing, audiences wanted to hear more. He had always enjoyed Western Music and while he could croon romantic ballads with the best of the pop singers, his voice had a rugged quality that could convey images of the out-of-doors that the Western genre called for.

In 1945, well into his successful career, he convinced his record label, RCA Victor, to let him sing some Western Music. His first foray into the genre was a record of “Cool Water,” accompanied by the Sons of the Pioneers, followed by “Blue Shadows on the Trail” a couple of years later. The recordings made the pop record charts in 1948 (at #9 and #26, respectively). He also recorded the theme from the motion picture Melody Time, the Disney film starring Roy Rogers & the Sons of the Pioneers that featured the class Disney cartoon Pecos Bill and the song “Blue Shadows on the Trail.”

In 1949, he recorded a #1 hit record “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend),” which led to numerous other Western recordings including the very popular “Mule Train” and starring roles in two singing cowboy A-films (not B-Westerns) with Republic Studios, Singing Guns and Toughest Men in Arizona, filmed in color. The music from these films is available on YouTube.

Monroe also recorded many other Western songs, e.g. “The Pony Express,” “Mexicali Trail,” “Gonna Ride and Ride,” “Home on the Range,” ‘Smoking My Last Cigarette (the Cowboy Serenade),” “Don’t Fence Me In,” “A Man’s Best Friend is His Horse,” “Rounded up in Glory,” “Phantom Stage,” “When the Sandman Rides the Trail,” “No Range to Ride Anymore,” and others, a number of which were assembled in an RCA Victor album in 1952 (Vaughn Monroe Sings New Songs of the Old West). The rest were issued as singles, most of which have been re-issued on CD. Because he was a popular singer with a huge following (even today, a large number of CDs of his music are readily available), he played an important role in bringing Western Music to a new and larger audience. Since so much of his work is still being re-issued, nearly 40 years after his death, his impact is still being felt.
O.J. Sikes

Awards:

• 2011 Hall of Fame Inductees