OK. 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

My top 5:

1. The Magnificent Seven (theme from Elmer Bernstein score)
2. Blazing Saddles (Frankie Lane's other song)
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Gene Pitney, IIRC, but as I recall it wasn't used in the actual movie)
4. Big Iron (by Marty Robbins, not the man in black, OK, it wasn't used in a movie at all but it's an all time great gunfight song).
5. The Girl I Left Behind Me - by no one in particular but you can't watch a John Ford cavalry movie and not hear it.

Great list. I'd have to add the theme from "The Magnificent Seven" by Elmer Bernstein.

To All: I am conflicted about anything in The Magnificent Seven. Steve McQueen and James Coburn ("You lost.") are indescribably cool. However, Yul Brynner as a shaven-headed Cajun gunslinger in a stunning all-black ensemble is just too much.

What ruined the movie for me was this: When it came out in 1960, I was a freshman in college and saw the film in the little local theatre. In the audience was a classmate named John Wren who could do Donald Duck better than Donald Duck. Comes the scene where Chris is auditioning the conflicted would-be Mexican gunslinger played by Horst Bucholtz. Horst can't beat Yul, and is working up to a regular method-acting hissy fit, when out of the audience comes the Voice of the Duck:

"AW PLEASE, MISTER, LET ME DRAW MY GUN. WAWAWAWAWAWAWA."

Pandemonium. I thought they were going to have to tear gas the place to restore order. I've never been able to watch it with a straight face since.

The fact that the Magnificent Seven is really an Americanized rendition of the Seven Samurai... and Bernstein's score does so much to make it so... well, American... that's why I like the theme song. That, and the fact that I can't drive (or hike, or ride a horse) through the high desert without whistling or humming that song. How true on "You lost." But I also like "Oh hell, if that's all that's holding things up... I'll drive the rig." Bald head, black suit, or not. The only western movie lines/scenes I find more powerful than those from the Magnificent Seven are in Unforgiven.

I liked the Rawhide theme song. I even liked it when the Blues Brothers did it.

The theme from "The Magnificent Seven" has to be number one for Western movies. A cigarette company distributed free copies of that song on CD several years ago, and I still listen to mine when kicking off a back-country hunting expedition. The theme from "Rawhide" would be my pick for TV themes.

I'm clueless but I'll take a stab at #2 being Maverick with James Garner and #3 being Shane. #1 would have to be the good, the bad and the ugly with 5 very recognizable notes. I'm clueless on #4 and there is only one thing that ended in Texas that I know of, Davy Crockett.

Hey, that's Tuco.

I also think "Song of the Faraway Hills" from Shane should be there, plus the Mag 7. How many of your viewers nailed Tombstone Territory? (Hell, I can still sing it from memory, not that you'd want to hear--how's that for having watched too much TV?)

Ken Curtis was also in The Searchers as the husband to be.

I don’t know the best movie, but one of my favorite part of the movie is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMrQLz2nTMk

Davy Crockett has a good eye for real estate. Or at least Fess Parker, the guy who played Davy, has one. After he quit acting, he bought the DoubleTree resort hotel on the beach in Santa Barbara, Calif. I'd say he played his 15 minutes of fame into a pretty good investment.

I realize its a rather slow time of the year for hunting but da*n we are about out of something to write about here. Unfortunately I remember each song well, too well as I was there when they came out. I was even named after one of the cowboy stars since he was my mother's silver screen hero. You guys remember the Lonesome Dove musical theme that ran throughout the six hours the made-for-TV movie played? I thought this music added a lot to my favorite western but I could not tell you the name of a single song. Michael Martin Murphy has several fantastic western music CDs. I think he still has a web site where you can purchase them. I have a couple and have heard him in person, both are very enjoyable. How about Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle" that he sang in some movie he made probably back in the forties. Gene sure made a big crock of money before he rode on up the trail.

What about "The Rifleman" Gotta love the series of rifle shots as he walks down the street.

Quite honestly anything Clint Eastwood has done should be considered candidate for this list, although #1 will always be right in my opinion. Other things considered, however, there are other westerns that are good and are accurate descriptions of what happened during th eera, although they mostly are terribly overdone and thought out entirely too much.

NOS but in my old age nothing brings tears to my eyes like seeing the funeral of one of my brothers in arms. Even a total stanger. I cried like a baby when they played taps at my Father in law LtCdr J. R. Schurman's funeral. During my career I was in charge of several Army funeral details and it didn't seem to get to me nearly as bad then.

Anyone ever listen to Ken Curtis (Festus) sing. Sure he sang in the John Wayne movies, but, did you know he took over for Frank Sinatra in the Tommy Dorsey band. Look at his web page on Ken Curtis.com---there you can hear him sing on a few music videos----great voice--he was in show business all his life. He'll always be one of my favorite western actors and singers.

All the music from Once Upon a Time in the West. They'll play that I my funeral I hope.

I would have to add theme from 'Gunsmoke' to the list.

In 1955 (?) I was sent home on a convalescent leave. Had been out of touch with the rest of the world for a while. My trip was by train, with the last leg being public transportation on a bus. I was tired, my nerves were shoot, I weighed less than 100 pds. For no reason that I could see the entire bus (20 or so people) burst out in song "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier". I really thought that I had lost my mind and was in the twilight zone.
It must have been a very popular show.

i have to agree with Buckstopper...THE BIG COUNTRY was a favorite of mine.

Besides our love of related articles, like holsters and Sierra Bullets, is our music. Kind of hard to explain to the non-shooter, but there it is.

Hoo-ahh.

Tom 'Blueridge'

As a kid we would make up new words to the TV western theme songs like "Branded" with Chuck Conners and his broken sword as was drumed out of the cavalry. My favorite version would go like:
Stranded...Stranded on the bathroom bowl.....
What do you do if your stranded...and you don't have a
roll....
To prove your a man... you must wipe with your hand
When your stranded..stranded on the bathroom bowl

I was 6 years old when "The Good. The Bad and The Ugly." came out. Every neighborhood kid whistled the tune (or pretended to if he couldn't whistle...) when we played cowboy games.

Buckstopper -- I sang that Stranded tune at the dinner table once; everyone was so shocked as that was not polite dinner time talk, but my Dad laughed his head off!

The theme to Bonanza comes to mind as being eternally etched in my brain.

Hmmm... Since this question was about songs, and not the movies themselves, I can agree with one thing:

Good, Bad, and the Ugly was the best theme, for anything on earth and even parts of New Jersey, for any reason, ever. The music added to the film, not just was tacked on like a TV theme.

Since some of us sidetracked to the shows themselves, I would say that this, or another fantastic Eastwood film; "The Outlaw Jose Wales" would about tie for first. "Outlaw's" music wasn't as memorable though.

I would add to the list the opening theme from El Dorado with John Wayne. The great music was enhanced by the excellent western paintings that accompanied it. The paintings were done by the man that played the gunsmith in the film.

The alamo
Blazing saddles
The good the bad and the ugly.
True grit