(Stanley Lebowsky/Herb Newman)
Country song written in the 1950s that had the music composed by Stanley Lebowsky and the lyrics by Herb Newman.
The story of it refers to “the wayward wind” and “a restless wind” which describes a young man who has wanderlust or an an intense wish to leave his home and explore after being brought up in a shack by the railway and listening to the trains going by.
He met a girl in who fell in love with him but sadly it didn’t work out as he just couldn’t settle for a long period of time and had to move on again just like the restless wind and he describes himself as the “next of kin to the wayward wind”.
The recordings of the song became very successful internationally with the singer Gogi Grant achieving the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart in the US and No. 9 in the UK in 1956. That same year Tex Ritter reached No. 28 in the US and No 8 in the UK and Jimmy Young reached No. 27 in the UK.
Eight years later Frank Ifield recorded it and reached the No. 1 spot in the UK singles chart in 1963. It hit the charts again 19 years later when James Galway, featuring Sylvia, reached No. 57 in the US in 1982 and then twelve years later it was recorded again by Anne Murray and reached No. 7 on the Canadian charts in 1994. Many other singers have also recorded versions of the song.
The song was chosen as No. 27 in the list of the Top 100 Western songs of all time by the Western Writers of America.
Frank Ifield recordings
Columbia 45-DB 4960
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayward_Wind
- https://www.westernwriting.com/western-song-wayward-wind/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20101019002745/http://americancowboy.com/culture/top-100-western-songs
- http://michaelembry.blogspot.com/2013/03/story-songs-wayward-wind.html
- https://secondhandsongs.com/release/43780