Released 1939 (1939) | Genre Country | |
Writer(s) Gene Autry, Ray Whitley "Back in the Saddle Again"
(1939) "Blueberry Hill"
(1941) | ||
"Back in the Saddle Again" was the signature song of American cowboy entertainer Gene Autry. It was co-written by Autry with Ray Whitley and first released in 1939. The song was associated with Autry throughout his career and was used as the name of Autry's autobiography in 1976. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Although the song has long been associated with Autry, it was first used in a non-Autry film, Border G-Man (1938). Ray Whitley and his Six Bar Cowboys group sang it in that film, and they made a record of it for Decca Records in 1938. Autry first performed "Back in the Saddle Again" on film in Rovin' Tumbleweeds (1939), and he recorded it for the first time with other songs in Los Angeles in April 1939.' He eventually "made at least a dozen recordings" of the song.
"Back in the Saddle Again" was used as the theme for Autry's radio program, Gene Autry's Melody Ranch and for The Gene Autry Show on television.
The 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle included Back in the Saddle Again as one of "a number of standards" in its soundtrack.