history of songs in Disneylands America Sings

America Sings was a ride in Disneyland from 1975-1988. I think it was designed to celebrate American music for the bicentennial. It was a cultural history/feel-good thing that Disney rarely does anymore and I sometimes obsess about it. I wonder who curated it and what their process was. I wish there was a live show for kids and imagine who would do the different songs. Anyway, here’s a tourist VHS recording of the ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtP5bMoSfRg

So the one song I can’t figure anything about was a western gothic story with organ called "The End of Billy the Kid" by The Boothill Boys (at 8m 16s of that video). I've always wondered what that's based on. Does any music or story recordings like that actually exist?

This is a spotify playlist I made of the “real” songs that were in the ride. (always looking for better or more authentic/original versions): https://open.spotify.com/user/colombene/playlist/20NfXv1742qjTPoYtMtRWg?si=PxNDBb08SNmaSvZAcPT80A

I know I went on it at least twice, and that there was a soundtrack album we either owned or checked out from the library...

I watched that video yesterday and in the notes noticed something about the death of Disneyland worker Debra Jones went sent me down a weird rabbit hole

(Stone, not Jones)

Yea, I actually have the soundtrack record. Was just wondering if there was history of that kind of story or an original it's based on. Everything other song is an actual song from a specific period/style that I can trace. But I can't find anything for this - the only composers listed are from Disney. Here's what I found for the rest (oy, there were some gnarly versions of these songs I was not aware of).

Act 1: Going South
Yankee Doodle (mid-1700s)
I Dream of Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair (parlor song by Stephen Foster, 1854)
Pop! Goes the Weasel (country dance from 1852)
Dixie (minstrel shows, disputedly Daniel Decatur Emmett ,1859)
Little Liza Jane (published 1916, may originate as a Black folk song with dancing game)
Camptown Races (minstrel song, Stephen Foster, 1852)
Old Kentucky Home (anti-slavery ballad, Stephen Foster, 1853)
Polly Wolly Doodle (Dan Emmett, 1843, premiered at Bowery Amphitheatre NYC)
Single Girl (Appalachian folk ballad, earliest date 1907, sung by Kelly Harrell, 1925)
Down In The Valley (folk song, Tarlton & Darby, 1927)
Down By the Riverside (anti-war spiritual, pre-civil war)

Act 2: Heading West
Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (railroad work song, Casey & Connolly 1888)
I’ve Been Working On the Railroad (folk song, published 1894)
Fire Ball Mail (country, Fred Rose for Roy Acuff, 1942)
Old Chisholm Trail (cowboy song from 1870s, published by John Lomax 1910)
Who Shot the Hole in My Sombrero? (Hayes & Leeds for Rex Allen, 1947)
Billy, the Bad Guy (????)
Home On the Range (western folk song, Higley & Kelley 1870s)

Act 3: Gay Nineties
She may Be Somebody’s Mother (1898, W. C. Carleton)
The Bowery (from the Broadway musical ‘A Trip to Chinatown’, Hoyt & Gaunt, 1891)
After The Ball (waltz, C.K. Harris 1891)
Wandering Boy (temperence hymnal, W.A. Williams, 1892)
Bill Bailey (dixieland, Hughie Cannon 1902)
Sweet Adeline (barbershop standard, R.H. Gerard & H. Armstrong 1903)
Old Gray Mare (folk song, recorded in 1917)
Bird In A Gilded Cage (sentimental ballad, Lamb & Von Tilzer 1900)
Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Der-E (vaudeville music hall from the H. J.. Sayers’ revue ‘Tuxedo’, 1891)

Act 4: Modern Times
Ja-Da (jazz standard, Bob Carleton 1918)
The Darktown Strutters’ Ball (jazz standard, Shelton Brooks 1917)
Singin’ In The Rain (Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown, 1929)
A-Tisket, A-Tasket (nursery rhyme late 1800s, popularized by Ella Fitzgerald 1938)
Boo-Hoo (big band, Guy Lombardo, 1937)
Beat Me, Daddy, Eight To the Bar (boogie-woogie, recorded by Will Bradley 1940)
Hound Dog (12-bar blues, Leiber & Stoller, recorded by Big Mama Thornton 1952)
See You Later, Alligator (rock n roll, R.C. Guidry, popularized by Bill Haley and His Comets 1956)
Shake, Rattle and Roll (12-bar blues, Jesse Stone, recorded by Big Joe Turner 1954)
Twistin’ USA (rock n roll, Kal Mann, recorded by Chubby Checker 1960)
Joy To the World (Hoyt Axton, 1970)
Stars and Stripes Forever (march, John Philip Sousa, 1897)