My Old Pal, Pal of Mine

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: Undetermined

Lift your feet, old pal of mine, you know
The weary long days unravel.>My old pal, pal of mine
You’ll always be until we go
The happy last trail to travel.
My old pal, pal of mine (mind)
Your step for soon we will be there
Is someone waiting by
An open gate for you and I,
Someone who’ll be glad to know
We’re still the same old pals
Until the prairie breezes blow
The tops from the mountains level,
My old pal, pal of mine.

You know that some fellows long for riches
Some fellows want a throne.
I have the world in my pony
And that’s all I care to own, so….

Repeat first verse

“There’s no tribute too good for a good horse. Some say a man’s best friend is his dog but I think a cowpuncher would speak first for his pony. In any weather, in any danger, the cowpuncher trusts his life to his horse and the horse, he can be sure, will never fail him.”
—Bob Nolan

"My Old Pal" plays with the words and voices of the singers. The last word sung by the first singer and the first word sung by the second singer is the same word (in bold) sung together then taken away by the alternate singers so that, except for the difference in voices, it sounds like one run-on sentence. In line 6, the last word mine becomes mind as the first word in the next sentence – “mind your step….”. The song was first recorded for the film The Man from Cheyenne (1942), then for the 10-2-4 Ranch radio show. This recording was also used on the Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions. It was never commercially recorded and we have found no sheet music or lead sheet.

We do not have any sheet music for this song.

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

10-2-4 Ranch radio show, No. 170-03 (February 17, 1943)

Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 29, 73, 133, 219, and 248 (c. 1947-48)

Lucky U Ranch radio show (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcriptions disc TR-632/633 (January 2, 1953)