Elton Britt
Elton Britt (* June 27, 1913 in Zack, Arkansas, † June 22, 1972 in McConnelsburg, Pennsylvania, real name James Elton Baker) was an American country musician. Britt came with There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere the biggest hit of the wartime era 1942-1945.
- 2.1 Singles
- 2.2 albums
Life
Childhood and youth
Elton Britt, was born as the youngest child of Mr and Mrs James M. and Martella Baker in Zack, Arkansas. Britt was born with a very sick child, so his parents gave him first no name. It was not until about a year Britt was named James Elton. He was named after his father and the physician Dr. Elton Wilson, who had saved his life. Britt grew up in a musical family; As a child he bought himself his first guitar and was later fascinated by the plates Jimmie Rodgers '. He learned how to yodel and soon became known for his ability to yodel extremely long.
His musical career began in Britt, when he took her musician Hugh Ashley for the Beverly Hillbillies. The group just came from California to work again in their home state of Arkansas. It soon became Britt permanent member of the band who had a daily radio show on KMPC. Here he also got his stage name "Elton Britt ". Glen Rice, an employee of a company that sponsored their radio shows, noted that Elton Baker not enough sounded like " hillbilly " and therefore he took over from now the stage name Elton Britt.
Career
His first recording made Britt 1933 Conqueror Records together with the Wenatchee Mountaineers. In June 1934, he played with his brother Vernon for his first known song Chime Bells, which should come at number six on the charts in 1948 in a new version. Even with the Beverly Hillbillies played Britt as a background musician some plates a. 1933 Britt had moved to New York City.
1937 Britt wrote a contract with RCA Victor Record Company, where he remained until 1956. First, the success did not come, even though he appeared on countless radio stations and 1933, starred in his first film The Last Dogie. But at the end of the 1930s it went with his career up to Britt met the songwriter Bob Miller know who should write all of his later big hits. Britt reached with titles such as Rocky Mountain Lullaby, Driftwood on a River or a different version of Chime Bells first respectable sales figures. 1942, the Second World War the United States had reached, Britt came with the patriotic song There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere the big breakthrough. The title of a total of more than four million sold times and was the biggest hit of the war. Through his hit Britt was given a special honor; he was invited by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House, where he lectured There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere.
As the Billboard Magazine in 1944 his charts of the Hot Country Songs published for the first time, Elton Britt was among them. In the second half of the decade he was eleven times in the country Top Ten, even if it never reached number one. More Hits by Britt were among other Someday ( 1944), Detour (1946 ), Candy Kisses (1949) and Quicksilver ( 1950). Britt became a member of the same number of famous country music shows: the WWVA Jamboree, the KWKH Louisiana Hayrides and WCOP Hayloft Jamboree and the not so famous Garden State Jamboree on WATV. Britt had arrived at the height of his career.
In the 1950s the hits failed to materialize, although Britt played at RCA and from 1957 on ABC - Paramount continues plates a. 1960 Britt ran for President of the United States, but lost. He went back to the music and had reached in 1968 with the Jimmie Rodgers Blues, the number 26 on the charts, his last hit. Two years before his album Something For Everyone was able to place in the top 30 album charts. On June 21, 1972 Britt suffered while driving a heart attack and died in a hospital in McConnelsburg, Pennsylvania a day later. Britt was in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Broad Top, Pennsylvania, buried. He was posthumously honored with induction into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame (1990) and in the America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Discography
Singles
Discography is not complete.