The tune was composed by Bill Simon who was responsible also for setting a tune to Gail Gardner's 'Tyin' a Knot in the Devil's Tail'. John I. White noted that any credit at all in print for Simon's contribution to the music of the West was a long time coming. He quoted Simon:

I can neither read nor write music. I just somehow worked out 'Spanish Is the Lovin' Tongue' as I rode the range, trying to fit the words in a melody I was striving for. After I got it to the point where it suited me, I started singing it around the campfires and it seemed to catch on. One night Dorothy Youmans (sister of composer Vincent Youmans) heard me sing it and was taken with it. Later she wrote out the music for me and played it on the piano down at Castle Hot Springs while I sang. Well, it sure sounded good. [Quoted in John I. White 'Git Along Little Dogies' University of Illinois Press 1989, p 131]

--Stewie.