Print the Legend: The End of it All in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

SteynonLine ^ | June 13, 2026 | Rick McGinnis

[Twotone]

In 2010 the Western Writers of America surveyed its members and compiled a list of the top 100 western songs of all time. They presented it at their annual convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, and holding down the top three spots were, in descending order, "Ghost Riders in the Sky", Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and the chestnut "Cool Water", recorded most famously by The Sons of the Pioneers.

"El Paso", the most cinematic of all three songs, was never featured in a movie, while Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders" has showed up in many, starting with Gene Autrey's 1949 film Riders in the Sky. None of them, however, really lived up to the promise of the song's wistful supernatural theme, which is still waiting for a great ghost story western to fulfill it's promise.

"Cool Water", written by Canadian Bob Nolan, would appear first in a Roy Rogers film, Along the Navajo Trail, performed by Nolan and his group, The Sons of the Pioneers, and showed up in the Coen Brothers' 2018 western comic anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It isn't until number six that the list includes a song written explicitly as the theme for a western movie – Dmitri Tiomkin's "The Ballad of High Noon", also known as "High Noon" or "Do Not Forsake Me".

You have to scroll all the way down to number thirty-six – past "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", "Home on the Range", "Don't Fence Me In", "Happy Trails", "Rawhide" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" to get to "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", the song that (depending on who tells the story) was meant to be the theme tune of John Ford's 1962 western (Pitney insists that Paramount Pictures paid for the recording session) even though the song wasn't finished until after...

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TOPICS: History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: johnford; libertyvalance; movies

[chajin]

"Ghost Riders" has showed up in many, starting with Gene Autrey's 1949 film Riders in the Sky

Also in Blues Brothers II, where in the film it is performed at the Cynthiana (KY) state fair, in the district of the soon-to-be-ex-congressman Massie.

[DFG]

“Nothing’s too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance.”

[chajin]

includes a song written explicitly as the theme for a western movie – Dmitri Tiomkin's "The Ballad of High Noon"

It is played at the very beginning, with the camera focusing in on one of the bad guys, played by Lee Van Cleef. IIRC he was offered the Gary Cooper role on the proviso that he get his nose fixed, and he refused.

[smokingfrog]

Yippee-ki-yay

https://youtu.be/t8s-ocpNMDE?si=ezHJ1uN4lasEJKcR

[ArtDodger]

Armchair analysis aside, many folks, of an age, consider ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ to be their favorite Western.
Their favorite genre, their favorite actors, their favorite director.. Plenty of action without the gore of ‘The Wild Bunch’. A Good plot with a nifty twist at the end. Good music. Some things don’t need to be over-thought...

[animal172]

A great movie, but I’ll take The Searchers any day.

[clintonh8r]

Not necessarily the greatest western song, but the greatest western movie theme of all time must be The Magnificent Seven.

[Old Grumpy]

“A great movie, but I’ll take The Searchers any day.”

YES! One of my all time favorites.

[GingisK]

That, closely followed by “The Ecstasy of Gold” in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

[7thson]

I took a look at the list. Two songs that should be on the list but are not are Bad Company by Bad Company and Jack the Toad by Savoy Brown.

[DugwayDuke]

clintonh8r wrote: “Not necessarily the greatest western song, but the greatest western movie theme of all time must be The Magnificent Seven.”

That movie has one of my all time favorite lines: ‘when asked why he took off all his clothes and jumped into a spreading cactus plant, the cowboy replied: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”’ That is the perfect response to any question of why one did something.