The song was sung, on the soundtrack, not by Frankie Laine – who had a Top Ten hit with it on both sides of the Atlantic – but by Country & Western star Tex Ritter. Ritter's version reached No. 12 in the USA and (according to Wikipedia) was "a major hit" on the Country & Western charts, but it failed to make the Top 40 in the UK.
Wikipedia also notes that the song's popularity "set a precedent for theme songs that were featured in many subsequent Western films."
© Haydn Thompson 2024