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Johnny Horton Album: “Spectacular Johnny Horton”
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Spectacular Johnny Horton |
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Release Date:2000-07-14
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Country, Vintage Country, Oldies
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Label:Sony
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Explicit Lyrics:Yes
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UPC:9399700077667
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Review - :
{$Horton}'s brief flurry of country-pop mega-stardom coincided with some of his less interesting music, as this 1960 album proves. Corny Americana became his meal ticket after {&"The Battle of New Orleans"} (which leads off the disc), and more of the same follows on the gold-prospecting tales {&"Sam Magee"} and {&"When It's Springtime in Alaska."} Those songs are country-pop with a banjo for a whiff of (not quite genuine) authenticity. On several of the other tracks, he didn't bother with the banjo, leaving average or below-average country-pop balladry to remain. Yet he hadn't forgotten how to play and sing gutsy rockabilly cum honky tonk, as shown on the album's best cuts. His self-penned {&"The First Rain Headin' South"} is certainly the best of the crop; the cover of {&"Cherokee Boogie,"} like {$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, All Music Guide
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