Claude King
Singer/songwriter and actor Claude King is best remembered for his one big hit, "Wolverton Mountain," the tale of one Clifton Clowers who is "mighty handy with a gun and a knife" and keeps his daughter sequestered in their mountain home away from potential suitors. 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. He 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.
In 1961, King signed to Columbia and released his first single, "Big River, Big Man." The song became a Top Ten country hit as well as a minor pop hit. The follow-up, "The Comancheros," also made it to the Top Ten. Around this time King teamed up with Merle Kilgore to write "Wolverton Mountain," a song that neatly blended a classic fairy-tale quality with Horton's storytelling style -- and capped off the whole with lush Nashville sound background vocals that accented the song's theme of youthful ardor. "Wolverton Mountain" spent nine weeks at the top of the country charts and peaked at number six on the pop charts. Two more hits -- the Top Ten "The Burning of Atlanta" and the number 11 "I've Got the World by the Tail" -- followed, and King and his band, the Nashville Knights, became hot tickets. Through 1964, he continued his string of successes with singles like "Hey Lucille!," "Sam Hill," and "Building a Bridge," but his hits became more sporadic in the latter half of the '60s. King left Columbia in 1971 and began recording with little success on independent labels. "Cotton Dan," which barely nicked the bottom of the charts, became his last hit in 1977. 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.
© Sandra Brennan & James Manheim /TiVo
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The Comancheros
Jazz - Released by Black Sheep Music on 15 mei 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nightingale
Country - Released by oldies and hits for future on 20 mei 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sound and Vision
Country - Released by the sound girly on 12 dec. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Comancheros
Jazz - Released by Stars and Stripes on 15 mei 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Big River, Big Man (Billboard Hot 100 - No 82)
Country - Released by Music Manager on 23 okt. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Love Caught
Country - Released by classics & more on 20 jul. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Talkative Friend
Country - Released by classics & more on 9 mei 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Express Yourself
Country - Released by sinderella on 7 dec. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Big River, Big Man
Jazz - Released by Black Sheep Music on 22 okt. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Wolverton Mountain
Folk - Released by Blue Pie Records USA on 1 jan. 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
St. Nicholas - For Young Folks
Country - Released by St. Nicholas Day on 5 dec. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Wolverton Mountain (Billboard Hot 100 - No. 06)
Vocale muziek (wereldlijk en religieus) - Released by Music Manager on 19 dec. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Big River, Big Man
Jazz - Released by Stars and Stripes on 22 okt. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Just at the Turn of the Tide
Country - Released by turn of the tide on 28 apr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
OnlyMilesAway
Jazz - Released by claude king cuts on 12 dec. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Flapping Wings
Country - Released by Wings in Hell on 1 jan. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pistol Packin' Papa
Country - Released by CTS Digital on 7 jul. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo