Johnny Horton Album: “Johnny Horton Makes History”

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.

I distinctly remember being introduced to Johnny Horton at the young age of 4. My dad had the album he'd bought back in 1960 for the whopping price of $2.35--and I could just kick myself for getting rid of it after my record player went the way of the dinosaurs. I hadn't heard any of the songs from this wonderful album since I was 13 or 14...and I remembered every word! Truly a timeless treasure belonging in the collection of any history buff!

this is a great album for fans of old time country singers they are ballad songs that tell a story about different people and events in history done by the great Johnny Horton this was a must buy for me.

If you enjoy reading history and folk legend, you can't help liking it in this format. The presentation is lively.If it has one deficit isn't quite expansive enough. I would like to have it to included songs about Pecos Bill,Paul Bunyan,Johnny Appleseed and a host of other American Legendary individuals and historical events That said, what and who it presents in music is done superlatively well.

My dad bought this album new when it came out. It was stacked right in there with Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin on my turn table. I recorded it on cassette tape when that was in vogue. The songs are a 50's pop kind of sound, to timeless ballads. Johnny Horton, I think, was considered 'country' at the time, with a few excursions into 'rock'. The album is unabashedly patriotic and pro American. It was released a few years before the Kennedy assassination, when Johnson took over and started fighting the Vietnam war the way democrats fight them now days- don't fight to win, but just send enough troops to put them in harms way. This kicked off the 60's anti war movement, and the whole landscape of music changed. The album seemed rather 'innocent' and 'naive' after that. Despite that, this has been one of my favorite, and in fact my first favorite album. I think the songs are still relevant for today, as they're historical ballads, and fun, easy listening. It has stood the test of time, and in my music collection, it is a classic.