Johnny Horton Mania

I'm writing this because I cannot find any tributes to Johnny Horton on the internet. I figure if I, at least, have a blog dedicated to the man, I can type in "Johnny Horton" and "Sugar-Coated Baby" in the same sequence and the WWW will pull up SOMETHING.

Sugar-Coated Baby, by the way, for all those people who haven't heard of Johnny Horton is a catchy little ditty (popular with country music in the late 1950s) that has the cute little memorable line: "She's as sweet as honey all the way around and she's sugar-coated all the way down." And when you heard the man sing it, you could hear the rakish-rougish smile in his voice--and I would think, now here's a guy who could show a girl a good time. Or at least he'd have fun proving you were sugar-coated all the way down. God bless him.

If you have heard of Johnny Horton, you probably have only heard of two songs, "Battle of New Orleans" (which apparently is the only way we American kids even know we fought in the war of 1812, and possibly know that we fought against England), and "North to Alaska". It's more likely you heard of the first song, and it's really likely you're going to your encyclopedia to see if I'm right about us fighting England in 1812.

I am right. I'll wait until you confirm it.

Told you.

For those of you wondering how desperately OLD I am, let me assure you the man had been dead for 15 years before I showed up. Of course, I didn't realize he was dead when I knew him. I was just playing my Dad's records, happy it wasn't Jimmie Rodgers and his Mule Skinner Blues crap. (I don't think Jimmie's so bad now; but when I was 9, he was horrible.) At age 9, when you don't realize there is an FM station (my Dad was good about keeping that a secret), Johnny Horton is peppy, fun, and downright sexy. A little like Elvis. Without the hip action though. And cuter. Johnny Horton never got fat or addicted to drugs. From what I read about the poor guy, he never even drank.

How's this for irony? Johnny Horton, who didn't drink, married Hank Williams' (the first one) widow in 1953 or so. (We all know Hank drank.) Johnny Horton in 1960, right before his second biggest hit (North to Alaska) was released, dies in a car accident: he was killed by a drunk driver. Probably Hank's ghost. You know how jealous men get.

If you want to see the movie that goes with the song, you should check out North to Alaska. It stars John Wayne, so you know it can't be all bad. And it's a bit historical, you could say. It's about the Alaskan gold rush.

Other songs worth hearing by sweet Johnny:

The Mansion You Stole
All For the Love of a Girl
Whispering Pines
Honky Tonk Man
Take Me Like I Am
Words
Counterfeit Love
Miss Marcy
They'll Never Ever Take Her Love From Me
I'm Ready If You're Willing
Hooray For That Little Difference
It's the Same Old Tale (That the Crow Told Me)
A Honky Tonk Mind

Lots of others too...but I seem to be remembering only the ballads at the moment. I would think the four disc CD collection of him is good, but it doesn't have the "Sugar Coated Baby" on it. Travesty!