Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington wrote the song GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL to be woven throughout his score to the 1957 Burt Lancaster/Kirk Douglas western.
Singer Stephen Van Dorn ad-libs a sight-read performance of the song with Mike Farrell on piano.
GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL lyrics by Ned Washington Note: British Edition
GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL lyrics by Ned Washington Note: Generic Cover- Professional Editon
I was just trying to remember who had done it originally, and, yes, it was Frankie Laine. Don't be so harsh on the singer -- remember, this is a cold, first reading without familiarity to the music.
Here's the Frankie Laine version--conducted by no less than Johnny Williams.
That "pop" version is awful. Better to have no recording at all than make do with that one. There's only one version worth listening to, and that's the original, with Tiomkin conducting:
What about the version with Kunzel/Cincy Pops? It actually has Lane singing as well.
Yes, that's quite good, apart from the deafening gunshots Telarc decided to insert. I used my editing software to lower the noise of the gunshots considerably, which helps.
