Search - Johnny Horton :: Johnny Horton Makes History

The Classic 1960 album on cd

Darrin Warren | Osburn, Idaho | 12/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here are 12 songs that are truly entertaining and educational. This album was originally released just a few short months before Johnny was killed in a head on collision. The music has held up quite well through the years and sounds better than ever on cd."

Action tales of battles, heroes, and epic events.

David Kenner | Fort Worth, Texas United States | 06/14/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, I stole the album's subtitle for the title of my review, but it kinda says it all doesn't it? A "concept album" of sorts but certainly a different kind of concept album; one that celebrates our nation's history in a way that is never too serious or too lighthearted. A few of these songs had already been released on singles and on the "Spectacular Johnny Horton" LP, but being in the historical vein, they were worth repeating for this collection. You know most of these stories and you probably know a lot of these songs, particularly the giant hits "The Battle Of New Orleans" and "Sink The Bismarck". Sometimes a few liberties are taken here and there for entertainment's sake or because the meter of the song warrants it. For example, "in May of 1941", the war had not "just begun" as stated in the opening line of "Sink The Bismarck". But you can still learn a lot from these simple narrative folk ballads as they are performed by one of country music's all time greatest honky tonk singers.
The music on this brief but reasonably priced compact disc was remastered from the original Columbia master tapes by Steve Hoffman. And when you see Hoffman's name credited to the mastering of a CD reissue, you know the job was done right."

In its day, this was an important record...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 08/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It was 1960. Horton's single of "The Battle of New Orleans" had sold a couple of million copies, and had brought the Folk Revival to the country and western audience, with suprise appeal to the pop charts as well. His "Sink the Bismark" was part of the British film of the same name. He was going to die in a car crash just a few months after the LP arrived in stores, but we didn't know that. I was 15, interested in both folk and country and in American history, so this was a "must buy." Only a dozen songs, only 30 minutes long, and with some lackluster tunes mixed in with the gems, the record grabbed me. I loved "Sinking of the Reuben James" and didn't know for a couple more years that it was written by Woody Guthrie and other members of the defunct Almanac Singers 20 years earlier. I teared up at "Comanche (The Brave Horse)", because at the time, Custer was still a hero and his last stand unfair and tragic. There are two pro-Confederate songs on here, one pro-Lincoln saga, two songs about Northwestern mountain men, two about the Revolutionary War, and one addressing the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. I just discovered this was finally out on CD, and could not resist reliving my youth a bit. It sounds great. Horton was an interesting character in his own right, and a good enough singer so that his posthumous reputation really ought to be bigger than it seems to be. If you like "story songs" and U.S. history, you will probably enjoy this. The guitar and banjo work is as good as the vocalizing. It's a man's album...albeit, a man who has a lot of kid still in him...but there is not a love song in the bunch. Lots of war and shooting and voyaging and exploring, though."