This was a monster hit in the USA in 1959, staying at number one for 6 weeks there. It also reached the Top 20 in the UK, where Lonnie Donegan's cover version outsold it. It was Horton's highest-charting single in the UK.
Johnny Horton was one of many country stars I had the chance to meet when my father took me backstage at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas. He was really nice.
Sadly, he passed away in 1960. You must have been a child then.
As a matter of fact, it was just about a month before he died.
That must have been about October 1960. He was killed on November 5th that year.
I suppose.
