Gene Autry’s Western Classics was a Columbia album set, C-120, issued in February 1947 as four 78 rpm discs numbered 37183 to 37186. It holds eight sides: “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” on the first disc, “Home on the Range” and “Red River Valley” on the second, “Mexicali Rose” and “South of the Border” on the third, and “Twilight on the Trail” and “Ridin’ Down the Canyon” on the fourth. Billboard listed it among the advance folk releases in its issue of 22 February 1947.
Autry, born Orvon Eugene Autry in Tioga, Texas, in 1907, was not reissuing old masters for the set. He re-recorded the songs in 1946 at the CBS studio of radio station KNX on Gower Street in Hollywood. “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Mexicali Rose” were cut on 13 February 1946, “South of the Border” and “Ridin’ Down the Canyon” on 4 June, “Home on the Range” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” on 5 June, and “Twilight on the Trail” and “Red River Valley” on 30 August. He had already recorded “Back in the Saddle Again” on 18 April 1939, for Vocalion.
The eight sides went onto a 10-inch LP in February 1949 as Columbia HL 9001, Gene Autry’s Western Classics, Volume I, which was reissued in 1950 as CL 6020. A second volume, HL 9002, appeared with eight other songs from the 1946 sessions, including “The Last Roundup” and “Rounded Up in Glory.”
Tracklist
- 1 Back in the Saddle Again 2:48
- 2 Tumbling Tumbleweeds 3:22
- 3 Home on the Range 2:39
- 4 Red River Valley alt version 2:26
- 5 Mexicali Rose 3:05
- 6 South of the Border (Down Mexico Way) 2:54
- 7 Twilight on the Trail 3:12
- 8 Ridin' Down the Canyon 2:31
