We all know that before A Fistful of Dollars launched Clint Eastwood into the public eye as a bankable Western movie star, the television program Rawhide first gave Eastwood his due. In the series, he played ramrod Rowdy Yates, who became the trail boss in the final season after Eric Fleming‘s Gil Favor was written out. Nowadays, Eastwood is the man most closely associated with the series, and for good reason. But there’s another cause for celebrating Eastwood’s 217 credited appearances on Rawhide. As it turns out, the long-running horse opera was also responsible for launching the star’s musical career.
‘Rawhide’ Featured Clint Eastwood As a Singing Cowboy
Throughout Rawhide history, Eastwood’s Rowdy Yates picked up a guitar once or twice while on the open trail. It wasn’t an uncommon bit to see on the Western, but in Season 4, audiences saw a new side to the star’s musical talents. In the episode “The Pitchwagon,” Eastwood took television by storm when he performed a cover of “Beyond the Sun.” The audience in the episode was surprised to hear Rowdy’s tune, and so were viewers. “Thus Clint launched his musical career,” wrote Patrick McGilligan of the event in his biography, Clint: The Life and Legend. In 1959, Eastwood became a singing cowboy by recording his first record, Cowboy Favorites, after signing a deal with Cameo Records.
In conjunction with his popularity on the Rawhide program, Eastwood’s debut album was reissued a few years later as Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites, complete with new Rawhide-inspired singles such as “Rowdy” and “For All We Know.” Ironically, the classic “Rawhide” theme, performed in every episode by Frankie Laine, was noticeably absent from the lineup. Eastwood and Laine’s material would eventually be compiled for a dual album called The Singing Cowboys in 2014. During the television off-season, Eastwood and co-star Paul Brinegar, who played Wishbone (a role he reprised many years later), traveled to perform at rodeos, state fairs, and other festivals across the country, where they made as much as $15,000 per performance. The duo were sometimes joined by their other Rawhide co-star, Sheb Wooley, who played Pete Nolan.
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McGillian writes in his Eastwood biography, “People who have extolled Clint’s predilection for jazz usually ignore the less adventurous half of his split musical personality, as a country-and-western enthusiast.” Of course, longtime fans of the horse opera may not know of Eastwood’s particular love for jazz, a style of music that highly influenced him in his youth (his son, Kyle Eastwood, is a popular jazz musician himself). But as far as his career was concerned, Eastwood blended all his musical loves. The movie star performed musically in films such as A Fistful of Dollars, The Beguiled, Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, and at the end credits of Gran Torino. Likewise, he performed in some musical Western productions, such as 1969’s Paint Your Wagon and 1982’s Honkytonk Man.
Over the years, Eastwood composed the scores for many of his own motion pictures, with some of the most notable soundtracks being Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, and J. Edgar. He contributed certain tracks to movies like Unforgiven, American Sniper, and Absolute Power. In 1997, Eastwood married his love of the screen with his love of the score for a live performance in New York City, eventually collected as Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall. The concert pulled material from many of Eastwood’s compositions, as well as projects he’d headlined in the past (such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and even Rawhide).
While Clint Eastwood is certainly best known as an impressive Western star and an exceptional director of motion pictures, his lesser-known music career (though not as extensive as his other artistic endeavors) is one we can trace all the way back to his initial on-screen performance.
Rawhide is available for streaming on PlutoTV.
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Rawhide
Gil Favor is trail boss of a continuous cattle drive. He is assisted by Rowdy Yates. The crew runs into characters and adventures along the way.
- Release Date
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January 9, 1959
- Cast
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Clint Eastwood
, Paul Brinegar
, Steve Raines
, Eric Fleming
, James Murdock
, Rocky Shahan
, Robert Cabal
, Sheb Wooley - Seasons
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8