Riders in the Sky

Riders in the Sky is an American Western swing band formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1977. Comprising of lead guitarist Ranger Doug (Douglas B. Green), bassist Too Slim (Fred LaBour), fiddler Woody Paul (Paul Chrisman), and accordion player Joey The Cow-Polka King (Joey Miskulin), the group is often credited with kick-starting a revival of "cowboy music" in the 1980s due to their numerous television appearances on The Nashville Network and critically acclaimed albums released throughout the decade.
In 1999, Pixar reached out to Riders in the Sky and asked them to perform the song Woody's Roundup for their upcoming film Toy Story 2 after Ash Brannon had recommended them. Without hesitation, the Riders agreed and recorded the song on August 24, 1999 in the O'Henry Studio in Burbank, California. Shortly thereafter, Jay Landers of Disney Records contacted the Riders to create an entire album based on the characters of Toy Story 2, which resulted in Woody's Roundup: A Rootin' Tootin' Collection of Woody's Favorite Songs, released in August the following year. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album For Children at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
The next collaboration between Disney and Riders in the Sky came in 2002. Wanting to do a follow-up of the financially and critically successful Woody's Roundup album, Pixar asked the band to do something similar to promote the Monsters, Inc. feature film. Monsters, Inc. Scream Factory Favorites was released in the fall of 2002, and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album For Children at the Grammy Awards of 2003. The album is a radical departure from Riders in the Sky's usual "Western" sound, with songs based on the film's characters performed in the style of 1950s doo-wop, 1960s pop, Caribbean, a lullaby, and southern jazz.
Following another successful partnership, the Riders continued to collaborate with Disney on various projects for films, television, and the Disney theme parks: They performed the "Big High Wire Hop" heard in the Pixar short For The Birds, "Stanley Rides Again" and an alternative version of the show theme "My Man Stanley" in Stanley's Dinosaur Round-Up, "The Rust-Eze Polka" in Cars, and composed the theme to the Toy Story Midway Mania! attraction performed by Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) in the ride's queue. Their recording of "Blue Shadows on the Trail" was used in the 2019 Searchlight Pictures film Lucy in the Sky.
==Trivia==
*Prior to working with Disney and Pixar in 1999 on Toy Story 2, Riders in the Sky had recorded several songs from two Disney productions for their own albums Pecos Bill and Blue Shadows On The Trail (originally written for the Pecos Bill animated short), and The Ballad of Davy Crockett, King of The River, Farewell, and Ol' Betsy (all originating from the Disneyland Davy Crockett anthology series).
*When the Woody's Round-Up ride was being constructed for Shanghai Disneyland, Riders member Joey Miskulin was flown to China by Disney to oversee the translations and new arrangements of the attraction's music, as most of the songs had come from the Riders' Woody's Roundup album released in 2000 and used their original instrumental tracks.
==External links==
*Official Website
*Riders in the Sky on Wikipedia
*Official Twitter
*Official Facebook
Category:Singers
Category:Songwriters
Category:Singer-songwriters
Category:Musicians
Category:Artists
Category:Males
Category:1940s births
Category:Toy Story
Category:Cars
Category:Monsters, Inc.
Category:Stanley
Category:Bands
Category:Pixar
Category:American people
Category:People from Illinois
Category:People from Tennessee
Category:People from Michigan
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