"Ride Like the Wind" was the debut single by Christopher Cross in February 1980, appearing on his Grammy-winning self-titled debut album. It reached number 2 in the U.S. charts, behind Blondie's Call Me. On the album inner sleeve, Christopher Cross dedicated this song to Lowell George, formerly of the band Little Feat, who died in 1979. It features backing vocals by Michael McDonald and a guitar solo by Cross.

According to an interview by Guitar 2001 Magazine with guitarist Eric Johnson, he mentioned performing on "Ride Like the Wind", but his parts did not make the final cut of the song.^{[citation needed]} Johnson performed the guitar solo on the song "Minstrel Gigolo".

Cross performed the single live at Flemington Racecourse, Victoria, Australia, as part of the pre-race entertainment for the 2007 Melbourne Cup. In 2009 Cross performed the song on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon with the house band The Roots and special guest Michael McDonald doing the background vocals.

In 1991, the band East Side Beat remixed Ride Like the Wind in a style typical of early 1990s dance music. There are five remixes in total. Two versions are found on the 7" single and an additional three are on the CD single.

"Like the Wind" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999, performed in English by Vanessa Chinitor. This was only the second time that Belgium had entered a song entirely in English, the first being Dream Express' "A Million in One, Two, Three" back in 1977.

The song was performed second on the night (following Lithuania's Aistė with Strazdas and preceding Spain's Lydia with "No quiero escuchar"). At the close of voting, it had received 38 points, placing 12th in a field of 23.

The song features Chinitor explaining that she needs to be "like the wind", in the sense that it is eternal and doesn't care about what happens to be in its way. For her Eurovision appearance, Vanessa wore a red dress which left her shoulders bare, whilst her female backing singers (including 1981 Dutch representative Linda Williams) appeared in black. She was also accompanied by a man in a grey suit, who, Terry Wogan commented, appeared to be playing a "Mongolian nose flute" (it was actually an ocarina).