Songfacts®:

• This ode to the state of Texas was written by June Hershey with music by Don Swander. The song was first recorded by Perry Como with Ted Weems and his Orchestra on December 9, 1941 for Decca Records in Los Angeles, California. It spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hit Parade in 1942.
• Bing Crosby recorded a version with Woody Herman & His Woodchoppers, which reached #3 on the Billboard charts in 1942.
• The seemingly inoffensive song didn't contain any saucy lyrics, but the BBC banned it anyway. They deemed the song too catchy, with authorities in wartime Britain concerned that factory workers would be distracted if they heard it during a shift.
• The song's title was borrowed for the name of a 1942 Western film, which featured Tex Ritter and the Jimmy Wakely Trio singing the title song. Gene Autry also sung a well-known version in the movie Heart of the Rio Grande, which was released the same year.
• During a season 3 Muppet Show tribute to Western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Evans sings this in a scene with the Muppet Babies, who provide animal noises.