"I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky" is a song written by Lee "Lasses" White and

Jimmy Wakely James Clarence Wakely (February 16, 1914 – September 23, 1982) was an American actor, songwriter, country music vocalist, and one of the last singing cowboys. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he released records, appeared in several B-Western ...

. It is a Western-flavored yodeling song.

Slim Whitman Ottis Dewey "Slim" Whitman Jr. (January 20, 1923 – June 19, 2013) was an American country music singer and guitarist known for his yodeling abilities and his use of falsetto. Recorded figures show 70 million sales, during a career that spanne ...

recorded it as his debut single in April 1949 for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

. It was released as a single, with " I'll Do as Much for You Someday" on the

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

Lyrical and musical analysis

Lyrically, is a romantic cowboy song. Timothy E. Wise in his book ''Yodeling and Meaning in American Music'' states that while Whitman didn't strictly fit the Western genre, "I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky" is one of those songs of his that had a "vague Western feel" to its theme. He also observes that it combines "elements of Western-style bravura yodeling and Western imagery" with religious elements: the song imagines heaven as a range in the sky where people ride. "Imagining heaven as range riding in the sky is not too dissimilar from imagining the West generally as a kind of paradise, as it is depicted in so many romantic Western songs," he adds.

History

In 1948, Slim Whitman signed with

. It was his wife Jerry who suggested this song for his first recording session at the label that took place somewhere in 1948 or 1949. It was released as a single, with " I'll Do as Much for You Someday" on the flip side, in April 1949. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' in its April 30 issue reviewed the single and rated it as "satisfactory", choosing "I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky" as the better of the two sides. The comment on the song read: "Western yodellng and warbling with lively

ork Ork or ORK may refer to: * Ork (folklore), a mountain demon of Tyrol folklore * ''Ork'' (video game), a 1991 game for the Amiga and Atari ST systems * Ork (''Warhammer 40,000''), a fictional species in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe * '' Ork!' ...

backing. Tune is not likely to appeal widely." The song was a moderate success and became Whitman's

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

. It is now considered one of his classics. After the singer hit it big on Imperial, RCA Victor hastily issued several singles with his old recordings for the label to cash off of his popularity. The 1953 RCA Victor single "I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky" was even coupled with the same song as the then-latest Whitman's single for Imperial.

Track listing

References

{{Slim Whitman 1949 songs 1949 singles RCA Victor singles 1956 singles London Records singles Slim Whitman songs Songs written by Lee "Lasses" White Songs written by Jimmy Wakely Yodeling songs