lp discography - covers & lyrics

Careering often begins early with artists in the country music field. Rarely, however, does it break with such immediate success as in the case of RCA Victor's Elton Britt. His fame starred during the years when another great yodeler, Jimmie Rofdgers, was making recording history with the same company. Elton was born June 17, 1913, in the Osage Hills of Oklahoma. He claims descent that is half Irish and half Cherokee Indian; his father was a champion country fiddler throughout the southwestern states. The youngster learned singing from his mother, who had vocalized ever since she was a girl back in the Ozarks. Given a guitar by his father, Elton was weaned on three basic chords and the habit of picking songs from phonograph records. The turning point came in his fifteenth year when a pair of talent scouts came to search the hills for a young entertainer who could sing and yodel. They were directed to Elton's house where they found him out in the field plowing. He had only to sing a few measures before he was signed to a year's contract with station KMPC in Beverly Hills and was flown to California. It was arranged for Elton to make his first broadcast directly from the airport at Burbank. He was so frightened that, when asked about it later, he couldn't even remember the songs he had performed. From this beginning, however, he quickly branched out into singing on the networks and making personal appearances all over the world. Elton Britt joined RCA Victor in 1937. With consistent popularity, several of his records have become national best sellers, with at least one going over the million mark. The selections in this album reflect all phases of this stellar career: from the earliest, Patent Leather Boots, which was made at one of Elton's very first sessions in the late '30s, through his theme song, Pinto Pal, recorded in 1954, to some of his most recent releases St Louis Blue Yodel, The Skater's yodel, The Alpine Milkman and St James Avenue. The remaining selections were all released between 1947 and 1953, and represent some of the finest yodeling ever done. The Yodel Blues and Tennessee Yodel Polka, both from 1949, were recorded in duet form with yodeling songstress Rosalie Allen. Musically and technically they serve to complete a most uniquely successful grouping of American folk art.

ELTON BRITT

YODEL SONGS