Johnny Horton Discography
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Albums | Compilations| Singles
 Johnny HortonSpectacular Johnny Horton Release Date 1960 Label Columbia/Legacy Rating:  Horton's brief flurry of country-pop mega-stardom coincided with some of his less interesting music, as this 1960 album proves. Corny Americana became his meal ticket after &"The Battle of New Orleans" (which leads off the disc), and more of the same follows on the gold-prospecting tales &"Sam Magee" and &"When It's Springtime in Alaska." Those songs are country-pop with a banjo for a whiff of (not quite genuine) authenticity. On several of the other tracks, he didn't bother with the banjo, leaving average or below-average country-pop balladry to remain. Yet he hadn't forgotten how to play and sing gutsy rockabilly cum honky tonk, as shown on the album's best cuts. His self-penned &"The First Rain Headin' South" is certainly the best of the crop; the cover of &"Cherokee Boogie," like Warren Smith's &"Ubangi Stomp," flirts with imagery that will strike many as un-PC these days; and &"Got the Bull by the Horns" and the cover of Hank Snow's &"The Rocket" are respectable up-tempo numbers. Half a good album, then, and Horton wouldn't have a chance to resolve his conflicting directions, dying in the same year as the LP's release. The 2000 CD reissue adds three bonus tracks: the lame 1958 ballad &"Counterfeit Love," the mild 1958 rockabilly number &"All Grown Up," and a bizarre version of &"The Battle of New Orleans" cut especially for the English market, in which the rebels flee from the British instead of vice versa. Richie Unterberger, Rovi |
Tracks:
| Title | Composer | Time | |
| 1 | Battle of New Orleans | Driftwood | 2:32 |
| 2 | Whispering Pines | Hausey | 2:57 |
| 3 | First Train Headin' South | Horton | 2:20 |
| 4 | Lost Highway | Payne | 2:35 |
| 5 | Joe's Been A-Gittin' There | Martin, Wilkin | 2:40 |
| 6 | Sam Magee | Driftwood | 2:31 |
| 7 | When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below) | Horton, Franks | 2:36 |
| 8 | Cherokee Boogie | Redbird, Mullican | 2:28 |
| 9 | All for the Love of a Girl | Horton | 2:46 |
| 10 | Golden Rocket | Snow | 2:08 |
| 11 | Mr. Moonlight | Griff | 2:32 |
| 12 | Got the Bull by the Horns | Jones, Boyd | 2:12 |
| 13 | Counterfeit Love [*] | Hausey | 2:10 |
| 14 | All Grown Up [*] | Hausey | 1:55 |
| 15 | Battle of New Orleans [*Special Version Cut for England][*] | Driftwood | 2:27 |
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