http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Horton
One of the 1st 45's (Sink The Bismark) I ever bought. It is not listed but he also recorded a song that would get one killed in this day. Just to show how times change. Horton fans will know it and if you don't your the better for it.
Renowned Death Hag
We're not fans, but my husband was downloading JH songs for his mom and dad, and *there it was*. Even if I was a fan, I probably wouldn't have been after that.Originally Posted by onehunglow
Renowned Death Hag
"Honky Tonk Man" - one of my favorites of his. Dwight Yoakam (another fave of mine) did a pretty good cover of it.
Renowned Death Hag
How about a hint on what that song was?
Can't be any worse than David Allan Cole's songs!
Some songs with racist titles and content by Johnny Rebel are often falsely attributed to Horton. The confusion may have arisen because Horton had a hit named "Johnny Reb".
Renowned Death Hag
You know what, you're right. After reading your post, I did some research, and apparently people do get the two mixed up. I found a site with Johnny Rebel song lyrics, and the only thing more disgusting than the lyrics themselves were the comments from racists about them. It made my blood boil!
So, I apologize to Johnny Horton.
Yeah just the Rebel thing! Some get a bit touchy on the Rebel reference.How about a hint on what that song was?
Can't be any worse than David Allan Cole's songs!
Last edited by onehunglow; 12-06-2007 at 05:47 PM.
out of curiosity, what song were you thinking of? my parents often listened to johnny horton, and i can think of one song, but can't remember the name (only a few lyrics) that may be the one you're thinking of.
Renowned Death Hag
I don't think anyone pushed the envelope like David Allan Coe. I wonder how that guy still tour's with those songs he recorded hanging over his head. I guess he is just slipping under the radar of Al Sharpton.
the battle of N.O. was one of the songs my dad could sing after his massive stroke..JH holds a special spot to me just for that.
I liked his song from the movie North to Alaska/
Johnny Horton (April 30, 1925 â?? November 5, 1960) was an American country music singer who was most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs". With them, he had several major crossover hits, most notably in 1959 with "The Battle of New Orleans" which won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 was named number 333 of the Songs of the Century. In 1960, Horton had two other crossover hits with "Sink the Bismarck" and "North to Alaska".
Horton was also a rockabilly singer, and was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
[edit] Career
Horton was born John Gale Horton in Los Angeles but raised in the town of Rusk in East Texas. His family trekked back and forth from California often as migrant fruit pickers but always returned to the Rusk/Gallatin area in Texas. After graduation from Gallatin High School in 1944, he attended on a basketball scholarship the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College (then called "Lon Morris Junior College") in Jacksonville, Texas, the oldest junior college in the state. Although he did not graduate from Lon Morris or any other college, he later attended Seattle University. Thereafter, he worked in California and Alaska. He returned to Texas and won a talent contest hosted by then-radio announcer Jim Reeves at the Reo Palm Isle club in Longview, the seat of Gregg County, and soon starred in the popular Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. He remained a member of the Hayride until his death.
In September 1953, he married Billie Jean Jones, who, in late 1952, had also been married to country music star Hank Williams for two and a half months prior to his death. Horton's first marriage to Donna Cook ended in a divorce, granted in Rusk. With Billie Jean, Johnny had two daughters, Yanina (Nina) and Melody. Billie Jean's daughter, Jerry, was also part of the family.
Horton was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a drunk driver on Highway 79 at Milano, Texas while he was returning home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin on November 5, 1960.
There is no truth to the rumor that Horton was on his way to Dallas to meet actor Ward Bond about a role on the NBC television series Wagon Train. Bond was in Dallas at the time attending a football game. Bond died of a heart attack in Dallas just hours after Horton perished in the vehicular accident. A "Horton" did appear on Wagon Train â?? the actor Robert Horton, who portrayed the fictitious scout "Flint McCullough."
Horton is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Haughton east of Bossier City, Louisiana. He loved fishing as much, if not more, than singing and was once billed as "The Singing Fisherman." His favorite fishing holes abound through the Piney Woods of East Texas and northern Louisiana.
Some songs with racist titles and content by Johnny Rebel are often falsely attributed to Horton. The confusion may have arisen because Horton had a hit named "Johnny Reb".
Coincidences
My first post I hope I am doing this correct.
- Johnny Cash was a good friend of Horton. When he learned about the collision, he said "[I] locked myself in one of the hotel's barrooms, and cried." [1] Cash also dedicates his rendition of " When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" to Horton on his Personal File "Johnny Horton was a good old friend of mine."
- Johnny Horton reportedly had experienced premonitions several months before his own death about the possibility of dying in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. He always said that if he was in a head-on situation to drive into the ditch. His accident took place on a bridge so there was no ditch for which to head.
- Also in connection with these premonitions, a story circulates that Horton, known to detest musicians who drank, had agreed to send his friend Merle Kilgore a message from beyond the grave. Ten years later, Kilgore heard from a group of psychics from New York of an apparition in a cowboy hat, whose message was "the drummer is a rummer and he can't keep the beat." (recounted in "The View From Nashville", by Ralph Emery)
- Both Horton and Hank Williams were married to the same woman at the time of their death, and played their last shows at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas.
- Both Horton and Hank Williams died in Cadillacs.
- Johnny and the Rowley Trio, (Jerry, Evelyn, and Vera), were returning from a performance when they heard over the radio about the death of Hank Williams. They were on Highway 79 going through the town of Milano, Texas â?? the same town where Johnny would lose his life seven years later.
OMG when i was 7 I loved Johhny Horton. I didn't know what he looked like but I was in love with his voice. They tell me I used to say, "that man has got to be good lookin'".....ah, childhood.
Vi, I'm from Memphis, too!
I love "Running Bear". Such a sweet song! I even got my children singing it!
North To Alaska is a fine song.
Renowned Death Hag
I have also read that Hank William's Sr.'s last show was in Chattanooga. My Dad had an 8-track of Johny Horton's Greatest Hits and every song is burned into my rotting brain.
"Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
Peter the Hermit
My family had his greatests hits around when I was very little. I think I know all the words to all of his songs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Q47i4zGBs
Haaaa... LOVE Johnny.My gram put a bunch of his songs on a tape for me when I was little.
Although the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas is now closed and has been for quite sometime, the original neon sign from the Skyline Club is on display at the Hills Cafe. Which is also located here in Austin, Texas. I know I have some photos of it that I will try to post if it is possible. I am new to this site and still getting used to everything. If I can't find any of the photos of the neon sign, I will go take a photograph of it. It's only a few blocks from my home.
Welcome to the site Dray7austin!......... Oooh, and yes... We love pictures! Haha.
The part about Johnny having premonitions about his death is true. There was a book that came out years ago about the Louisanna Hayride radio show and there is quite a bit about that in the book.
Days before his death, Johnny visited his mother and both knew he would be dead "very soon". Very spooky !!!!
Guest
Death Hag Extraordinaire
Maybe it's because no one never even called him by his name. *groan*
Dig me some Horton!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydLU...eature=related
The most dangerous woman of all is the one who refuses to rely on your sword to save her because she carries her own.
- R.H. Sin
Renowned Death Hag
Never heard of Johnny Rebel...did a search...
My favorite songs from Johnny Horton are THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
and NORTH TO ALASKA.
Brings back childhood memories of the good old days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EVIdzy362w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSt0N...eature=related
Renowned Death Hag
[SIZE=3]The Eerie Demise of Johnny Horton[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=2]by Clay Coppedge[/SIZE] [/SIZE][SIZE=5]D[/SIZE][SIZE=2]espite Johnny Horton's wild-at-heart looks and voice, he was a man haunted for years by ominous premonitions of his own death. He often promised those close to him he would contact them from beyond the grave.
Like the psychic he claimed to be, Horton came eerily close to predicting the manner of his death. He believed he would be killed by a drunk. He died on Nov. 5, 1960, in an automobile accident at the Little River bridge on Highway 79.
James Evan Davis was driving a pick-up truck that smashed head-on into Horton's car. Horton was alive when ambulances arrived on the scene but died en route to hospital.
Davis, the driver of the truck, was charged with intoxication manslaughter; he was drunk at the time of the accident.
Johnny Horton's ghosts must have liked the quiet rural ambience of Milano.
[SIZE=5]O[/SIZE]n New Year's Day 1952, when Horton was trying to get his career started, he learned from a radio account that Hank Williams had died of a heart attack in the backseat of his Cadillac after playing a New Year's Eve gig at the Skyline Club in Austin. Later that same year, in 1953, Horton married Williams's widow, Billie Jean.
Horton went on to become one of the era's most successful recording artists with hits on both the country and pop charts. He made his name as a honky tonk singer with strong rockabilly tendencies but made his biggest impact on the charts with his 1959 recording of Arkansas history teacher Jimmy Driftwood's 'Battle of New Orleans.' The song went number one on both the pop and country charts and reached number 16 on the British charts despite the BBC banning the song because of the lyrics 'the bloody British.'
Horton followed that success with a string of 'saga' songs like 'North To Alaska,' 'Sink The Bismark' 'Comanche' (about General Custer's horse) and 'Johnny Reb.'
To the outside world, Horton seemed have it all: good looks, charm, a great singing voice and incredible athletic talent. Twenty-six colleges had offered him basketball scholarships after his graduation from high school. He played briefly for Lon Morris Junior College and Baylor University. During lean times in the music business, Horton could make as much as $200 a day playing pinball. His appeared to be a charmed life.
But Horton's premonitions of death grew stronger the more popular he became with country and pop audiences. He cancelled an appearance at the premiere of the movie 'North To Alaska' and tried to get out of his gig at the Skyline Club, but to no avail. He stayed in his dressing room at the Skyline, convinced a drunk would kill him if he stayed at the bar.
After the gig he kissed Billie Jean good-bye in the same place and on the same cheek where Hank had kissed her after his last gig at the Skyline.
With bass player Tommy Tomlinson in the front seat and manager Tillman Franks in the back, they set off for Shreveport, La. Tillman noted Horton was driving too fast, but that was not unusual. Horton always drove fast, as if propelling along his own prophecy. Franks was snoozing in the front seat and Tomlinson was in the backseat when Davis' pick-up bounced off either side of the bridge then plowed into Horton's car.
Franks suffered head injuries and Tomlinson suffered multiple leg fractures that eventually led to the amputation of his leg. Davis, the driver of the truck, was not injured.
[SIZE=5]A[/SIZE]s for Horton's promise of coming back from the grave, Franks believed Horton made good on his promise. It happened when Franks was driving to Nashville with singer David Houston. The radio was out and the CB radio was out. It was a quiet drive. Then, according to Franks, the CB kicked in with the opening riffs from Horton's 'One Woman Man.' 'It sounded like a juke box, real full, much louder than a CB would be,' Franks told music writer Colin Escott. 'The whole song played, and then the CB cut out again.
'I just froze. David did too . . . I told Merle Kilgore, and he said, 'Johnny's telling you that the song's gonna be a hit all over again.' I said, 'Well, it didn't do too well the first time out.''
Maybe Franks should have paid more attention to the omen. The song reached the Top Ten on the country charts when George Jones released it as a single in 1988.
© Clay Coppedge
"Letters from Central Texas" >[/SIZE][SIZE=1]
May 26, 2005 column
[/SIZE]
"What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett
I remember hearing his son North to Alaska.
I grew up listening to Johnny Horton, and I LOVED him. Johnny Reb, was, I think ,the song he recorded. It was a tribute to those who fought for the south--without judgment, simply noting that they had fought hard for what they believed in.
My favorite was and still is "Whispering Pines". Simple and beautiful.
Kate
Caught a few minutes of Ice Road Truckers last night, heard one of the drivers sing "when it's springtime in Alaska, it's 40 below". Love that song. My dad got me hooked on Johnny Horton, and now thanks to youtube, I've got my son into "Sink The Bismarck".
Senior Death Hag
I was reading about Hank Williams and came across the story of Johnny Horton. Both played their last live shows at the Skyline Club in Austin, TX. The club must have been jinxed.
Someone above mentioned the old Skyline Club sign, here's a photo
All kidding aside, it was probably a neat old honky tonk. Here's a link to the history of the Club and some of the acts that played there. Its gone now, replaced by a drug store.
http://fryr.tripod.com/cfhistnlamar.html
The story of Horton's prediction of his own death is spooky. He mentioned it to enough people and felt so strongly he skipped the premier of the movie "North To Alaska".
Don't forget, they were married to the same woman at the time of their deaths as well... They were also riding in the same make car, a Cadillac. Thanks for posting the photo!
Johnny is one of my favorite singers even though he lived before I was ever born. I knew, because of the recordings, that my gram liked him. It wasn't until after her death though that I found out he had been her favorite singer too.
Trivia: Many here have listed North To Alaska as one of their favorite Horton songs. The back up vocals on that recording were those of The Plainsmen Quartet, a well known gospel group at the time. The bass voice you hear singing "way up norrrrth" is that of Charles (Rusty) Goodman. Goodman spent several years with The Plainsmen before leaving to join his family gospel group, The Happy Goodmans, in 1963. The Goodmans went on to earn two Grammies before their retirement.
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