The song's actual sung lyrics are limited to the title word alone, performed by an unidentified male chorus, presumably The Jordanaires or the Mello Men. Throughout the rest of the performance, Greene talks about the legendary gunfighter. His words tell the story, in a first-person account, of a Western lawman and his relationship with a notorious gunfighter, Ringo.

It has been pointed out that the song does not fit the known historical facts of the life of western outlaw Johnny Ringo. However, this did not damage the song's popularity. In one of the first instances recorded of a country song hitting the top of the pop charts before charting country, it shot to #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts on December 5, 1964 as well as garnering the same spot on the "Easy Listening" chart, where it retained the position for six weeks. Due in part to its pop and easy-listening chart placement, the single also peaked at number twenty-one on the Hot Country Singles chart. In Canada, it hit #1 on the RPM top singles chart on December 7. The song was written by Don Robertson and Hal Blair.

The 'B' side of the disc contained a vocal version of the theme song of Greene's TV show Bonanza, with lyrics that were never used on TV (See Bonanza article for more on that song).

Canadian born Lorne Greene, recorded a French language version of "Ringo" with "Du Sable" ("Sand") on the flip side of the 45, released on the RCA Victor Canada International label # 57-5623. French is the official second language of Canada along with English.

A German-language cover by changes the meaning somewhat and alters the ending, but is otherwise fairly close to the English version. Like Greene's French-language edition, the single is also backed with a German version of Sand.

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