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Tex Ritter
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Tex Ritter, whose full name was Woodward Maurice Ritter, was an American country singer and actor. He was born in 1905 in Murvaul, Texas, and grew up on his family's farm. He studied at the University of Texas in Austin and later at Northwestern Law School, but eventually chose show business. In 1928 he sang on the radio in Houston, on a programme of mainly cowboy songs. That same year he went to New York, where he stood in a male chorus on Broadway. He played the cowboy in Green Grow the Lilacs, the stage forerunner of the musical Oklahoma!
Music and breakthrough
In 1936 he moved to Los Angeles and made his debut on the silver screen in Song of the Gringo. He appeared in seventy films. His greatest recording career began in 1942, when he became the first artist to sign with the new label Capitol Records. In 1944 he had a national hit with I'm Wastin' My Tears on You. In 1952 he sang the title song of the film High Noon, the Ballad of High Noon, which won an Oscar for best song. He also sang the song himself at the ceremony in 1953.
Influence
Ritter is regarded as an early pioneer of country music and is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. His cowboy songs and his role in Westerns made him known to a wide audience. He was the father of the actor John Ritter.
Listening
High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin') · Tex Ritter, 1952
Discography
Studio albums
- 1958Psalms
- 1962Stan Kenton! Tex Ritter!
- 1967Just Beyond the Moon
- 2004Sing, Cowboy, Sing
In School of Rock
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- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 2NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Hollywood Western Genre
In High Noon (1952), Dimitri Tiomkin, a Russian émigré, had a ballad return again and again, sung by Tex Ritter.