ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Claude King

(born Feb. 5, 1923 )

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate: Louisiana Hayride

Grand Ole Opry Member

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 3
• Hee Haw, 4
• Pop Goes the Country, 4
• Swamp Girl, 1
• The Blue and the Gray, 4
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, 4
• The Porter Wagoner Show, 4
• The Wilburn Brothers Show, 4 
• Year of the Wahoo, 1

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 1
• Top-20 Singles: 14
• Crossover Singles: 1
• Charted Singles: 30
• Years Active: (1962-1977)

Career Label:

Billboard Top-20 Singles 

1. Big River, Big Man -1961
2. The Comancheros
3. Wolverton Mountain*#1 -1962
4. The Burning of Atlanta
5. I've Got the World by the Tail -1963
6. Sheepskin Valley
7. Building a Bridge
8. Hey Lucille
9. Sam Hill -1964
10. Tiger Woman -1965
11. Catch a Little Raindrop -1966
12. All For the Love of a Woman -1969
13. "Friend, Lover, Woman, Wife
14. Mary's Vineyard -1970

*-No. 1 Chart Single

#-Biggest Chart Single

1-Gold Single

Claude King is  country music singer and songwriter, best known for his million selling 1962 hit, Wolverton Mountain. Focusing exclusively on that song results in an incomplete picture of King's career, however; he emerged from the milieu that also produced Johnny Horton, and after Wolverton Mountain" he scored another 27 chart singles. 

The Shreveport, LA, native was a natural athlete as a child. When he was 12, he learned how to play guitar. After attending college on a baseball scholarship, he spent the late '40s and early '50s working as a construction engineer and performing music in local clubs and on TV and radio. 

Early on, he met up with Tillman Franks, who became Horton's manager and also a top talent official with the Louisiana Hayride program on Shreveport radio station KWKH. King recorded his first single for the President label in 1947. Claude followed up with the hilarious honky tonker "51 Beers" (Gotham, 1949) and with other singles, including four recorded for Specialty in 1952, but despite some Hayride appearances lined up by Franks, he remained just under the national radar until 1962. 

King made his best known recording in the spring of 1962 while under contract with Columbia Records. Wolverton Mountain (No. 1, 1962), written with Nashville veteran Merle Kilgore, was based on a real character, Clifton Clowers, who lived on Woolverton Mountain in Arkansas. Clowers was Kilgore's uncle. The song became an immediate hit, staying at number one for nine weeks during its 26-week run on the Billboard country chart. It was also a top-10 in the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies and was awarded record status. 

King followed up that year with an American Civil War song, The Burning Of Atlanta, which also reached the top-10 on the country chart and again made the pop chart. In late 1962, he recorded I've Got The World By The Tail, which narrowly missed the country top-10. 

King had another good year in 1963, scoring three country hits with Sheepskin Valley, Building a Bridge and Hey Lucille! The hits continued in 1964 with Sam Hill and in 1965 he was back in the top-10 with Tiger Woman, co-written by Merle Kilgore. King also did well that year with Little Buddy. His smooth style continued to find favor throughout the decade, especially songs like Catch a Little Raindrop and the top-10, All For The Love Of A Girl, in 1969. His singles continued to hit the country charts through 1972. King left Columbia Records in 1973 after 29 hits. 

King frequently appeared on the same shows with Elvis Presley, Tex Ritte, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Davis, Slim Whitman, Faron Young, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell.

During his career, King also appeared in two feature films, Swamp Girl and Year of the Wahoo. He also appeared in the 1982 television miniseries The Blue and the Gray. 

-Claude Pays Tribute to Johnny Horton

On Nov. 5, 1960, Johnny Horton lost his life.

Johnny was booked into the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas on November 4, 1960. He stayed in his dressing room at the Skyline, convinced a drunk would kill him if he went back to the bar. After two sets, he started the 220 mile drive back to Shreveport, Louisiana. He was headed to a lake in Southern Louisiana for the start of the duck hunting season.

Pictured left Claude King & Johnny Horton

With bass player Tommy Tomlinson in the back seat and manager Tillman Franks in the front, they set off for Shreveport. Tillman noted Horton was driving too fast, but that was not unusual. Horton always drove fast, as if propelling along his own prophecy.

As they approached the Little River Bridge on Highway 79, near Cameron, Texas, James Evan Davis was driving a pick-up truck that smashed head-on into Horton's car. Davis' pick-up bounced off both sides of the bridge before plowing into Horton's vehicle. 

Both Franks and Tomlinson were taken to a hospital in Cameron.  Horton was alive when ambulances arrived on the scene but died en route to the hospital. Franks suffered head injuries and Tomlinson suffered multiple leg fractures that eventually led to the amputation of his leg. Davis, who was not injured, was charged with intoxication manslaughter.

Nine years later, Horton's friend Claude King released his tribute album. After that tragic day, King's main goal was to pay tribute to his lifelong friend and one of the greatest entertainers in country music.

His album, I Remember Johnny Horton (Columbia CS-9789) fufilled that dream. One song, in paticular, from the album, All For the Love of a Girl, reflected the close friendship of the two.

The album contained the following singles:

• I Remember Johnny Horton
• First Train Headin' South
• Whispering Pines
• Ole Slew Foot'
• Battle of New Orleans
• When It's Springtime in Alaska
• All For the Love of a Girl
• Honky Tonk Man
• Sink the Bismark
• She Knows Why
• North to Alaska

Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Oct., 15, 2011.