Johnny Horton

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Johnny Horton
Image:Johnny Horton.jpg
Johnny Horton
Background information
Birth name John Gale Horton
Born April 30 1925(1925-04-30)
Origin Los Angeles, California
United States Image:Flag of the United States.svg
Died November 05 1960 (aged 35)
Genre(s) Country music
Occupation(s) Singer
Notable instrument(s)
Guitar

Johnny Horton (April 30, 1925 – 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.

Contents

[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 East 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 the late 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 while he was returning home from a performance in Austin (Skyline Club) in a head-on collision with a drunk driver on Highway 79 at Milano, Texas.

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: the actor Robert Horton, who portrayed the fictitious scout "Flint McCullough."

Horton is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Haughton east of Bossier City. 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".

[edit] Coincidences

  • 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 to head for.
  • 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 gig, when they heard over the radio about the death of Hank Williams. They were on Highway 79 going through the town of Milano, Texas - the same town where Johnny would lose his life 7 years later.

[edit] Top 40 Country Hits

Image:Johnnyhorton.jpg
Johnny Horton's Greatest Hits

[edit] References

  • Escott, Colin. (1998). "Johnny Horton". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 247-8.

[edit] External links

simple:Johnny Horton fi:Johnny Horton

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Johnny_Horton"
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