"The Horses" is a song written by

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including Rock music, rock, Rhythm and blues, R&B ...

and

Walter Becker Walter Carl Becker (February 20, 1950 – September 3, 2017) was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.Russonello, Giovanni,Listen t ...

. It was originally performed by Jones on her 1989 album, ''

Flying Cowboys ''Flying Cowboys'' is an album by Rickie Lee Jones that was released in September 1989 and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan. Background After the release of '' The Magazine'' in 1984, Jones retreated from the limelight. She married Pas ...

''. While not released as a single, the original version did appear in the 1996 film ''

Jerry Maguire ''Jerry Maguire'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama sports film written, produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe; it stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, and Regina King. Produced in part by James L. Brooks, it was inspi ...

'' and was also included on the film's soundtrack. The song was covered in 1990 by

Daryl Braithwaite Daryl Braithwaite (born 11 January 1949) is an Australian singer. He was the lead vocalist of Sherbet (1970–1984 and many subsequent reunions). Braithwaite also has a solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including t ...

; his version reached 1 in Australia, and by 2022 had been certified tenfold platinum.

Background and release

The song was covered by

on his 1990 album ''

Rise Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...

''. It was released as a single in January 1991 and reached No. 1 on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in May. "The Horses" has been certified ten-times platinum in Australia by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

Margaret Urlich Margaret Mary Urlich (24 January 1965 – 22 August 2022) was a New Zealand singer who lived in Australia for most of her career. Urlich's 1989 debut solo album, ''Safety in Numbers'', won " Breakthrough Artist – Album" at the 1991 ARIA Awa ...

provided the female vocals on the recording but chose not to appear in the music video due to other work commitments. A model, Gillian Mather, lip-synced Urlich's voice for the music video. In May 2016, while celebrating the 25th anniversary of the song peaking at No. 1 in Australia, Braithwaite said: "I would never have thought that 25 years down the track, 'The Horses' – a song that I heard quite by accident and then recorded, would be liked by so many people for so many different reasons. And for this I am eternally grateful. I am sure that Rickie Lee Jones and Walter Becker could never imagine how endearing the song would and has become." In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian" songs of all time, Daryl Braithwaite's version of "The Horses" was ranked number 14.

Track listings

Australian 7-inch, CD, and cassette single # "The Horses" − 4:16 # "I Can't Wait" − 4:12 European maxi-CD single # "The Horses" − 4:16 # "Let Me Be" − 5:36 # "You Could Be Wrong" − 3:23 # "I Can't Wait" − 4:12

Personnel

– vocals * John Watson – drums * Scott Griffiths – keyboards, piano * Jef Scott – acoustic and electric guitar *

Tommy Emmanuel William Thomas Emmanuel (born 31 May 1955) is an Australian guitarist. Regarded as one of the greatest acoustic guitarists of all time, he is known for his complex fingerstyle technique, energetic performances and use of percussive effects on ...

– electric guitar * Alex Pertout – shaker, sleigh bells, vibraslap, tambourine * Jeremy Alsop – bass *

Simon Hussey Simon Cyril Hussey (born 7 July 1960) is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, songwriter-arranger, record producer and audio engineer. In 1984 he formed Cats Under Pressure on keyboards with David Reyne (ex-Australian Crawl) on vocals and Mark ...

– keyboards *

– backing vocals

Charts

"The Horses" made its ARIA chart debut at No. 38 on 3 March before peaking at No. 1 on 19 May. The song spent 23 weeks in the Australian top 50.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horses 1991 singles 1991 songs CBS Records singles Number-one singles in Australia Songs written by Rickie Lee Jones Songs written by Walter Becker