The Roving Kind (song)

"The Roving Kind"
Single by Guy Mitchell
A-side"My Heart Cries for You"
Released1950
GenrePop
Length3:02
Songwriter(s)Jessie Cavanaugh, Arnold Stanton
Guy Mitchell singles chronology
"The Roving Kind"
(1950)
"You're Just in Love"
(1951)

The Roving Kind is a 1950 popular song by Jessie Cavanaugh and Arnold Stanton, both pseudonyms used by music publisher The Richmond Organisation. It was adapted from a British folk song, "The Pirate Ship". "The Roving Kind" is about a girl who is nice but a wanderer.

The best-known version was recorded by Guy Mitchell in 1950, which reached No. 4 on Billboard in December 1950. The single also reached No. 6 on the Cashbox charts the same month.[1]

The song had first been recorded by the American folk group, The Weavers. Mitchell's jocular version followed the original sea-shanty style. Columbia's A&R director Mitch Miller followed this "folk-origin" formula for most of Mitchell's subsequent hits.[2]

  1. ^ Guy Mitchell charting entries Retrieved 09-19-11
  2. ^ The Independent; Obituaries: Guy Mitchell 5 July 1999