They Call the Wind Maria "popular hit singles at the record stores" that year. It has since become a standard, performed by many notable singers across several genres of popular music. A striking feature of the song in the original orchestration (also used in many cover versions), is a driving, staccato rhythm, played on the string instruments, that evokes a sense of restless motion. It has been called "Paint Your Wagon"'s "best known song" and "rousing but plaintive." Musicologist Stephen Citron wrote, "Perhaps the most unusual song in the score is a beautiful ballad of lonely prospectors hungering for their women, "They Call the Wind
They Call the Wind Maria 100 Western songs of all time. The song gained renewed popularity during the American folk music revival. In 1959, it was included on the Kingston Trio's first live album, "...From the Hungry i", which reached #2 on the Billboard Pop chart and won a RIAA gold record in 1960. It was also included on the Smothers Brothers first album, "The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers! Recorded at the Purple Onion, San Francisco", released in 1961. Other folk singers who performed the song include Josh White and Burl Ives. Musical historian John Bush Jones wrote that the song "so