Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind (1980)

"Ride Like the Wind" is the debut single by American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross. It was released in February 1980 as ...

"Ride Like the Wind" is the debut single by American singer-songwriter Christopher Cross. It was released in February 1980 as the lead single from his Grammy-winning 1979 self-titled debut album. It reached number two on the US charts for four consecutive weeks, behind "Call Me" by Blondie. On the album's inner sleeve, Christopher Cross dedicated this song to Lowell George, formerly of the band Little Feat, who had died in 1979. It features backing vocals by Michael McDonald and a guitar solo by Cross.

The lyrics of the song tell the story of a condemned criminal on the run to Mexico. Told from a first-person point of view, it describes how an outlaw and convicted multiple murderer, on the run from a death-by-hanging sentence, has to "ride like the wind" to reach "the border of Mexico," where, presumably, the posse in pursuit of him will not be able to reach him.

Cross described "Ride Like The Wind" as "sort of a romanticized Western where the bad guy gets away." The setting can be surmised to have been from the time before the United States and Mexico signed their mutual criminal-extradition treaty.