Johnny Horton

Biography

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×The Battle of New Orleans1959 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracksA1The Battle of New OrleansA2All Grown UpB1When It’s Springtime in Alaska (It’s Forty Below)B2Whispering Pines" 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×Sink the Bismarck18 January 1960 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksASink the Bismarck3:14BThe Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me2:30" and "North to Alaska×North to Alaska1959 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracksA1Broken Hearted GypsyA2First Train Headin’ SouthB2The Train With a Rhumba BeatB2Two Red Lips and Warm Red Wine", 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×All for the Love of a Girl1968 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1All for the Love of a Girl2:25A2First Train Headin’ South2:21A3Move Down the Line2:15A4The Child’s Side of Life2:50A5Broken‐Hearted Gypsy2:02B1The Mansion You Stole2:19B2The Train With a Rhumba Beat2:38B3Ridin’ the Sunshine Special2:18B4Big Wheels Rollin’2:18B5Devil Made a Masterpiece2:25" (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×Honky-Tonk Man1961 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Honky‐Tonk Man2:13A2Goodbye, Lonesome, Hello, Baby Doll2:20A3I’m Coming Home2:05A4I Got a Hole in My Pirogue2:21A5She Knows Why2:20A6They’ll Never Take Her Love From Me3:06B1Ole Slew‐Foot2:20B2I’m a One‐Woman Man1:59B3Sleepy‐Eyed John2:40B4Everytime I’m Kissing You2:15B5The Wild One1:55B6Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor2:18" 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.
"Honky-Tonk Man" was reviewed by the March 10 issue of Billboard, which said, "The wine, women, and song attractions exert a powerful hold on the singer, he admits. The funky sound and pounding beat in the backing suggest the kind of atmosphere he describes. A very good jukebox record." Their review of "I'm Ready if You're Willing" was also positive: "Horton sings out this cheerful material with amiable personality. This ever more popular stylist ought to expand his circle of fans with this one." The song peaked at number 9 on the C&W Jockey chart (now Hot Country Songs) and at number 14 on the Best Seller chart.
Horton returned to the studio on May 23, but the "A" side of his next single, "I'm a One-Woman Man" (Columbia 21538), was one of the songs recorded back in January. The "B" side was "I Don't Like I Did". Billboard described "One-Woman Man" as a "smart and polished job," and Horton as "singing with a light, airy touch. Guitar work is just as convincing, adding up to listenable, commercial stuff". His band and he toured through the United States and Canada to promote the record, which reached number seven on the Jockey chart and number 9 on the Best Seller and Jukebox charts.
"I'm Coming Home" / "I Got A Hole in My Pirogue" (Columbia 40813) was released around this time, as well. On February 9, Billboard noted, "not only Southern markets are doing good business with this, but Northern cities report that both country and pop customers are going for this in a big way". It was again a success on the country charts (number 11 Jockey, number 15 Best Seller), but it failed to score the popular music charts.
Later major successes include the song "The Battle of New Orleans×The Battle of New Orleans1959 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracksA1The Battle of New OrleansA2All Grown UpB1When It’s Springtime in Alaska (It’s Forty Below)B2Whispering Pines" (written by Jimmy Driftwood), which 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". Horton had two other successes in 1960 with "Sink the Bismarck×Sink the Bismarck18 January 1960 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksASink the Bismarck3:14BThe Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me2:30" and "North to Alaska×North to Alaska1959 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracksA1Broken Hearted GypsyA2First Train Headin’ SouthB2The Train With a Rhumba BeatB2Two Red Lips and Warm Red Wine" for John Wayne's movie, North to Alaska.

Personal life

Horton was married twice. His first marriage, to Donna Cook, ended with a divorce granted in Rusk, Texas.
In September 1953, he married Billie Jean Jones, the widow of country-music singer Hank Williams. Billie Jean and Horton had two daughters, Yanina (Nina) and Melody, and Horton adopted Billie Jean's daughter Jeri Lynn.

Death

On the night of November 4–5, 1960, Horton and two other band members, Tommy Tomlinson and Tillman Franks, were traveling from the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas, to Shreveport, when they collided with an oncoming truck on a bridge near Milano in Milam County, Texas. Horton died en route to the hospital, and Tomlinson (1930–1982) was seriously injured; his leg was later amputated. Franks (1920–2006) suffered head injuries, and James Davis, the driver of the truck, sustained a broken ankle and other minor injuries.
The funeral was held in Shreveport on November 8, 1960, officiated by Franks' younger brother William Derrel "Billy" Franks, a Church of God minister. Johnny Cash performed one of the readings, choosing Chapter 20 from the Gospel of John (Resurrection of Jesus).
Horton is interred at Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Haughton, east of Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana.

Legacy

When Johnny Cash, a good friend of Horton's, learned about the accident, he said, "[I] locked myself in one of the hotel's barrooms and cried." Cash dedicated his rendition of "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" to Horton on his album Personal File: "Johnny Horton was a good old friend of mine." Over time, Horton's material has been rereleased a number of times, through box sets and compilations.
Horton was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and posthumously inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday, Louisiana.
Horton was inducted in to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2025.