Johnny Horton
with
The Four B's

"Free "N" Easy Songs"

RARE 1959 45 RPM EP
 After Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor (Columbia 41110) was released in early February '58. Despite Franks'
 claims that it went to number one in Billings, Montana, it amazingly became three failures in a row for Johnny.

Things started to look grim and financially, Horton and Billie Jean were back in a jam. He reverted to playing pinball machines for money - Kilgore remembers him winning up to $200 a day from pinball. He also remembered that Horton "had a brand new Cadillac and I had an old Buick. Around midnight one night he woke me up and said I should meet him at a truckstop. I didn't ask any questions and went to meet him. He said, "Have you got money to change these wheels?" I said, "Yeah", so he told the man to take the wheels off the Cadillac and put them on my Buick, and put the Buick wheels on the Cadillac. My tires were wore down to nothing, so I asked him what he was doing. He said, "They're coming to repossess the Cadillac in the morning".

He became so desperate for some dollars that on 27th January 1958 he went into the studios of KWKH in Shreveport to record ten tracks for SESAC the performing rights society. It was a sign of the state his career had quickly slipped into as there was no chance of sales, the records acted only as adverts for his live shows via their airplay. With Tomlinson, Franks and piano player Sonny Harville the songs ranged from the calypso of Hot In The Sugarcane Field to the countrypoliton of Wise To The Ways Of A Woman. The whole thing has a poppy sound due to the use of vocal group the Four B's. 

In the fall of 1958, he bounced back with the Top Ten "All Grown Up," but it wasn't until the ballad "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" hit the charts in early 1959 that he achieved a comeback. The song fit neatly into the folk-based story songs that were becoming popular in the late '50s, and it climbed all the way to number one. Its success inspired his next single, "The Battle of New Orleans." Taken from a 1958  album, the song was a historical saga song like "When It's Springtime in Alaska," but it was far more humorous. It was also far more successful, topping the country charts for ten weeks and crossing over into the pop charts, where it was number one for six weeks. After the back-to-back number one successes of "When It's Spring Time in Alaska" and "The Battle of New Orleans,"  concentrated solely on folky saga songs.

  1959 SESACRECORDS
AD 26 
 45 RPM EP  

SONGS ARE
"Seven Come Eleven"


"Don't Use My Heart For A Stepping Stone"

^ Click on this link to hear it ^
Sound clip taken from YouTube - NOT from record listed
Flip Side
"I Can't Forget You"

^ Click on this link to hear it ^
Sound clip taken from YouTube - NOT from record listed
"Tetched In The Head"

^ Click on this link to hear it ^
Sound clip taken from YouTube - NOT from record listed
 ~ CONDITION ~
COVER
 VG +
Has sticker top right corner.
Has about a 1" seam split bottom right corner.
   
RECORD
   VG ++      Has sticker on one side label.       
       Plays Very Good!      Check out my ! Be sure to add me to your !

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