| The Roving Kind | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Guy Mitchell |
| Released: | 1950 |
| A-Side: | My Heart Cries for You |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 3:02 |
| Next Title: | You're Just in Love |
| Next Year: | 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]