约翰尼·霍顿

John LaGale Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country, honky tonk, and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international hits. His 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans" was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked number 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first number-one country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)".

Horton had two successes in 1960 with both "Sink the Bismarck" and "North to Alaska", the latter used during the opening credits of the John Wayne film. Horton died in November 1960 at the peak of his fame in a traffic collision, less than two years after his breakthrough. He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, and in 2025 the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life

Horton was born on April 30, 1925, in Los Angeles, the youngest of the five children of the former Ella Claudia Robinson (1892–1966) and John Loly Horton (1889–1959), and raised in Rusk in Cherokee County in East Texas. His family often traveled between East Texas and Southern California to work as sharecroppers. After he graduated from high school in Gallatin, Texas, in 1944, Horton attended Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, on a basketball scholarship. He later attended Seattle University and briefly Baylor University in Waco, although he did not graduate from any of these institutions.

Horton soon returned to California and got a job in the mail room at Selznick International Pictures, where his future wife, Donna Cook, was working in the studio as a secretary. After a short stint studying geology in Seattle in 1948, Horton went to Alaska to look for gold. During this period, he began writing songs. Returning south, he entered and won a talent contest in Henderson, Texas. Encouraged by this result, he returned to California to pursue a music career.

His guest appearances on Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree on KXLA-AM and KLAC-TV in Pasadena and his own half-hour show The Singing Fisherman led to the opportunity to record some songs on the Cormac record label. By the time the company folded in 1952, Horton had recorded 10 singles for that label. Fabor Robison, owner of Abbott Records, acquired the master recordings. Around that time, Horton married Donna Cook.

Louisiana Hayride and early career

By this time, Horton was appearing regularly on Louisiana Hayride, so Donna and he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the show was recorded. He also signed a contract with Mercury Records and began recording. His first song for that label, "First Train Headin' South" with B-side "(I Wished for an Angel) The Devil Sent Me You" (Mercury 6412), received good reviews. His new backup band, the Rowley Trio, and he began touring under the name the Singing Fisherman and the Rowley Trio in 1952, eventually changing the name to Johnny Horton and the Roadrunners. The group included Horton as lead singer and Jerry Rowley on fiddle, as well Rowley's wife Evelyn on piano and his sister Vera (Dido) on guitars. The constant touring was hard on Horton's marriage, and Donna moved back to Los Angeles. They were soon divorced.

On September 26, 1953, Horton married Billie Jean Jones, widow of Hank Williams, who had died on January 1, 1953. Horton parted ways with the Rowley trio, but continued to appear occasionally on Louisiana Hayride. His contract with Mercury expired in late 1954, with his recording of "All for the Love of a Girl" (Mercury 70227) being his bestseller, at 35,000 to 45,000 copies. Horton, himself always an avid fisherman, got a job in a tackle shop and put his music career on hiatus, but by the following year, his new manager and bassist Tillman Franks had obtained Horton a one-year contract with Columbia Records. They traveled to Nashville in a borrowed car for their first recording session. Influenced by the work of Elvis Presley, Horton began adopting a more rockabilly style.

"Honky-Tonk Man" and later career

"Honky-Tonk Man" was recorded on January 11, 1956, at the Bradley Film and Recording Studios in Nashville, one of four songs Horton recorded that day. Session musicians on the recording were Grady Martin and Harold Bradley, as well as Bill Black (at the time Presley's bassist). Soon afterwards, "Honky-Tonk Man" was released as a single (Columbia label: 4–21504) paired with another song from the same session, "I'm Ready if You're Willing". They went out on tour, with the band featuring Franks on bass and Tommy Tomlinson on guitar.