Tex Ritter

Induction Year: 1971

Birth Name: Woodward Maurice Ritter

Birth Date: 01-12-1905

Place of Birth: Panola County, Texas

Death Date: 01-02-1974

Place of Death: Nashville, Tennessee

Likely the most distinctive of the singing cowboys who rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s, Tex Ritter possessed a rumbling voice that was a perfect conduit for songs of the Old West and for heartbreak laments. Never a prolific writer, Ritter nonetheless co-wrote significant songs recorded by the Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and, of course, himself.

Born Woodward Maurice Ritter, he grew up enjoying Western music. When Ritter attended the University of Texas in the early 1920s, he met three authorities on cowboy songs — John Lomax, J. Frank Dobie and Oscar J. Fox — and gleaned much knowledge from them. He also started a weekly radio program while in college, performing on KPRC in Houston.

Ritter acted in Broadway musicals in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and spent time in New York recording for the American and Decca labels. And in 1936, Ritter moved to Hollywood with hopes of combining his interests in acting and Western singing. His first film, Song of the Gringo, was released on Republic films late that year and Ritter was a certified movie cowboy.

Ritter signed with Capitol Records in 1942, and scored his first self-penned #1 country hit in 1944 with "I'm Wastin' My Tears on You," a song that also landed in the Top 20 of the pop chart. He followed that by co-writing a top-charting hit in 1945, "You Will Have to Pay," and a #3 country record in 1946, "When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door." He and his favorite co-writer, Frank Harford, wrote the often-covered "Long Time Gone" in 1946, and in 1951 Hank Williams scored a Top 10 country hit with "Dear John," a song co-written by Ritter and Aubrey Gass that was later recorded by John Prine, Warren Smith and Skeets McDonald.

Ritter's signature song wasn't a chart hit: His recording of the title song of movie High Noon was featured throughout that Gary Cooper-Grace Kelly film. He shifted his focus to interpreting others' songs in the 1950s and '60s, and he was also a major force as a two-term Country Music Association president. On behalf of the CMA, Ritter traveled extensively, helped convince radio stations of the country music format's viability and led fundraising efforts that resulted in the opening of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He was elected to that Hall of Fame in 1964, moved to Nashville in 1965 and joined the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.

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Song Catalog

"Dear John"

(written with Aubrey Gass)

Hank Williams1951 #8 country
Tex Ritter1952 
Warren Smith1957 
Skeets McDonald1962 
John Prine1999 
 

"Headin' for the Rio Grande"

(written with Stanley Davis)

Tex Ritter1936 
The Prairie Ramblers1938 
 

"Here Was a Man"

(written with Johnny Bond)

Johnny Cash1963 
 

"High Wide and Handsome"

(written with Ted Choate)

Tex Ritter1936 
The Prairie Ramblers1938 
 

"I'm Gonna Leave You Like I Found You"

(written with Frank Harford)

Tex Ritter1946 

"I'm Wastin' My Tears on You"

(written with Frank Harford)

Tex Ritter1944 #1 country, #11 pop
 

"I've Done the Best I Could"

(written with Frank Harford)

Tex Ritter1943 

"Long Time Gone"

(written with Frank Harford)

Tex Ritter1946 #5 country
The Everly Brothers1958 
The Flatlanders1972 
Sweethearts of the Rodeo1993 
 

"Never Mind My Tears"

(written with Joe Allison)

Tex Ritter1948 
 

"Sing Cowboy Sing"

(written with Ted Choate)

Tex Ritter1937 
W. Lee O'Daniel1937 
 

"The Pony Express"

Tex Ritter1948 
 

"There's a Gold Star in Her Window"

(written with Frank Harford)

Tex Ritter1944 

"When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door"

(written with Joe Allison)

Tex Ritter1946 #3 country

"You Will Have to Pay"

(written with Sarah Jane Cooper, Bonnie Dodd)

Tex Ritter1945 #1 country

Other Media

Tex Ritter

Induction Year: 1971