Just found this list originally posted by Colorado Bob.
It appears to be the definitive list of all movies,
that featured Duke singing or apparently singing!!
Anyone know anymore?
Riders of Destiny (1933) = “The Outlaw’s Fate (The Cowboy’s Song of the Dead),” = (dubbed by Bill Bradbury, son of the film’s producer/director, Robert N. Bradbury)
Man From Utah (1934) = “Blow Desert Wind (Song of the Wild)”, (dubbed by Bill Bradbury)
Westward, Ho! (1935) = “The Girl I Love In My Dreams” (dubbed by Jack Kirk who appeared in the film)
Lawless Range (1935) = “The Outlaw’s Fate (The Cowboy’s Song of the Dead)”, and, “On the Banks of the Sunny San Juan” = (dubbed by Jack Kirk who appeared in the film)
Pittsburgh(1942) = “(Darling) Clementine” (sung by Wayne himself)
In Old Oklahoma (1943) = “Redwing” (sung by Wayne himself)
Three Godfathers (1948) = “Cowboy’s Lament” (“Streets of Laredo”) (sung by Wayne himself)
The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) = “600 Miles More To Go” (sung by Wayne himself in a duet with Oliver Hardy!)
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (1950’s) = During the 1950’s, John Wayne appeared in a short musical film with Roy and Dale, where Wayne was featured singing around the campfire
The Quiet Man (1952) = “The Wild Colonial Boy” (sung by Wayne himself in a duet with Victor McLaglan)
The Commancheros (1961) = “Redwing” (sung by Wayne himself)
McLintock (1963) = "I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" substituting Katie for Jeanie
Donovan’s Reef (1963) = “The Monkeys Have No Tails In Zamboanga”, and, “Frere Jacques” (sung by Wayne himself)
Big Jake (1971) = “The Dirty Cow” song (sung in Spanish, this is only an approximation of the songs title, as this is what Wayne is singing about)
Cahill, U.S. Marshall (1973) = “Cowboy’s Lament” (“Streets of Laredo”) (sung by Wayne himself)
Rooster Cogburn (1975) = “I Finded Her!” (sung by Wayne while his character is in a state of intoxication)
The Shootist (1976) = “Titwillow” (sung by Wayne himself)
QuoteDisplay MoreColorado Bob.
There are some who say that John Wayne had a beautiful baritone singing voice,
and there are those who might argue with them.
But Duke would, when the occasion called for it, let loose in song.
Once, during a celebrity auction, where participants bid to purchase the talents and time
of various celebrities in order to benefit charity, an anonymous bidder put up one thousand dollars
to hear John Wayne sing The Shadow of Your Smile.
Duke tried in vain to avoid the “honor,” but after the bidding rose to five thousand dollars,
he took the stage and warbled out the familiar tune.
In 1933, the “Singing Cowboy” was born with the Lone Star film, Riders of Destiny,
wherein Wayne portrayed undercover agent “Singing Sandy Saunders”, the very first of Hollywood’s singing cowboys.
There was one problem, however, with Wayne’s singing abilities. He apparently did not have any.
Therefore his singing voice had to be dubbed in by an off screen performer.
Over the years, many alleged experts have claimed that Wayne’s voice was dubbed
by either early western singer Smith Ballew or by Glenn Strange
(who was best known as Sam the bartender on television’s Gunsmoke).
However, according to those who were there on the sets of those early Wayne westerns,
most notably producer, Paul Malvern; director, Robert North Bradbury; his son, early western star Bob Steele;
and screen writer Lindsley Parsons; Smith Ballew never dubbed John Wayne’s singing voice.
In fact, Ballew himself confirmed that he had never dubbed Wayne’s singing.
Both Bob Steele, his father, Robert North Bradbury and Lindsley Parsons, Sr.
have all stated that it was Bradbury’s other son, Bill Bradbury,
who provided the singing for John Wayne in his earliest singing roles.
When one listens to Wayne sing in those early films, it is easy to hear
at least two different voices in these films.
In some films the voice is of a higher pitch and in some a lower pitch.
Bill Bradbury sang with a higher tenor, and therefore could not have dubbed with the lower voice.
Did Glenn Strange provide that lower voice? Although Strange did appear in several of Wayne’s early westerns,
the answer is no.
During one of Wayne’s many interviews, he was asked who had provided his voice in the later Lone Star films.
His answer was, “Pappy Kirk (actor-singer Jack Kirk) dubbed me in a lot of the latter Lone Star and Republic westerns.”
Wayne hated the idea of being billed as a singing cowboy,
and eventually went to producer Nat Levine and told him that he could no longer pretend to be singing.
It bothered him when he went on publicity tours and fans would ask him to sing, and he would have
to make up some story to avoid exposing the fact that someone had to dub his voice.
Although Levine was reluctant to lose his new found “singing cowboy” gimmick, he did listen
to Wayne’s solution to this dilemma. Wayne knew of a radio cowboy singer that Levine
could use to make his singing cowboy westerns.
Levine listened to the young singerand was impressed.
He brought him to Hollywood, signed him to a contract, and a legend was born.
That young fairly unknown singing cowboy who later became a Hollywood legend was none other than Gene Autry.
Some years later, Wayne recalled with some humor his early role as Singing Sandy,
when he related on the Dean Martin Show, “During the early days I wasn’t known just as a fighter and a gunslinger.
I was once known as Singing Sandy.
It was back in the 30’s and I was playing a cowboy, and the director thought it might be a good idea
if every time I got mad I’d start to hum. Well it caught on and the next picture I did four songs and played a guitar.
Well, I’ll have to confess, there was three of us. There was me, there was the fellow
that dubbed my voice, and there was the fellow playing the guitar. I was really a trio!”
Those of us today don’t have to put up thousands of dollars to hear Duke sing,
as some of his films contain both the apparent (dubbed by others) and actual singing voice of John Wayne.
