Ghost Riders in the Sky, written in 1949 by Stan Jones, a Hollywood songwriter, has become a standard classic in the world of country music. Vaughn Monroe originally sang it in a western movie released in the early 50s and his version also went on to become a No. 1 on the hit parade. In 1963, I worked on an educational radio series sponsored by Standard Oil called "The Standard School Broadcast." They commissioned Stan Jones to write some songs about heroes of early American history. I was a folk singer at the time, playing the banjo, 12 string guitar and recorder, and I enjoyed the opportunity to work on his songs. As it turned out, they were some of the last that he wrote. He died a few months later. As a note of interest, the first part of the melody resembles the song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again." They are, in fact, basically the same melody except that Ghost Riders is in 4/4 and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" is in 6/8.