<Tr> <Th> Genre </Th> <Td> Country, western </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Songwriter (s) </Th> <Td> Stan Jones </Td> </Tr> <P> "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" is a cowboy - styled country / western song written in 1948 by American songwriter, film and television actor Stan Jones . </P> <P> The tune sounds similar to "Spancil Hill" (traditional Irish folk song by Michael Considine, Irish emigrant to the United States in the 1870s). </P>

When was ghost riders in the sky written