Elvis/Johnny Horton song co-writers

[KPM]

I was just browsing the "Ask Marty" forum and saw the claim by Marty that the only song Elvis ever wrote was co-written by Johnny Horton, Marty does not give the name of the song??
Anyone have any clue about what song is suppose to be this co-written song?
http://www.elvis-express.com/elvisradio_askmarty8.html

[Brian]

Marty and Lamar have mentioned that Elvis co-wrote a song with Johnny Horton for years but I think they don't know the name of the song because Elvis never told them that.
Lamar Fike mentioned this song Elvis wrote with Johnny Horton during an interview with EIN a few years ago but he didn't know the name of the song.
Both were on the Lousiana Hayride in 1954-1955 so we can narrow it down to a song from that time period.
Unfortunately according to Marty Elvis refused co-writers credit so we probably will never know.

[hounddog]

interesting. Elvis is credited as co writter on That's Someone You'll Never Forget and You'll be Gone.

The other songs he's credited as co writer on i beleive he didn't actually write anyhting it was like a bonus for him recording the song

[KPM]

Marty and Lamar have mentioned that Elvis co-wrote a song with Johnny Horton for years but I think they don't know the name of the song because Elvis never told them that.
Lamar Fike mentioned this song Elvis wrote with Johnny Horton during an interview with EIN a few years ago but he didn't know the name of the song.
Both were on the Lousiana Hayride in 1954-1955 so we can narrow it down to a song from that time period.
Unfortunately according to Marty Elvis refused co-writers credit so we probably will never know.

If true-It would seem someone would know the name of this rare song-whether co-writers credit was taken or not.
Considering Elvis just did not write-other than You'll Be Gone and a few lines in a couple of Red West songs-its something you'd think someone would have more info on.

[Brian]

If true-It would seem someone would know the name of this rare song-whether co-writers credit was taken or not.
Considering Elvis just did not write-other than You'll Be Gone and a few lines in a couple of Red West songs-its something you'd think someone would have more info on.

Well, not if Elvis didn't tell them the name of the song.
It can't be an Elvis song it's got to be a Johnny Horton song that they wrote together in 1954-1955 while traveling together and performing on the Louisiana Hayride.
It could be a Johnny Horton B-side or some rare song of his unfortunately we can't ask him because he's dead.

[KPM]

Well, not if Elvis didn't tell them the name of the song.
It can't be an Elvis song it's got to be a Johnny Horton song that they wrote together in 1954-1955 while traveling together and performing on the Louisiana Hayride.
It could be a Johnny Horton B-side or some rare song of his unfortunately we can't ask him because he's dead.

I understand if Elvis did not tell the name of the song to Lamar or Marty-my point was not about the Elvis side of the tale.
Surely Johnny Horton in the 6 years he lived past the time of writing the song with Elvis must have mentioned it somewhere?
That would be a point of pride I would think-the only song in that 6 years period to have been partially penned by Elvis? If he did not mention it in public surely his family, wife, parents, close friends etc...would have known the story.
After Elvis died surely one of those people would have mentioned this tidbit in someway (knowing how people try to make money off of the Elvis connections)-but as far as I can find in a quick search on the web and looking thru my country western music history books I find no mention of it...........
The only mention is by Marty and Lamar that I can find.

[Tommy]

Johnny Horton: 'Live at the Louisiana Hayride'

Tracklist
1 Honky Tonk Man Lyrics 3:35
2 One Woman Man Lyrics 2:54
3 John Henry Lyrics 3:47
4 Jambalaya Lyrics 2:49
5 Johnny Reb Lyrics 2:23
6 Battle of New Orleans Lyrics 2:33
7 When It's Springtime in Alaska Lyrics 3:05
8 Sal's Got a Sugar Lip Lyrics 1:46
9 Sink the Bismark Lyrics 3:04
10 Whispering Pines Lyrics 3:52

Could be one of these.

[Brian]

I understand if Elvis did not tell the name of the song to Lamar or Marty-my point was not about the Elvis side of the tale.
Surely Johnny Horton in the 6 years he lived past the time of writing the song with Elvis must have mentioned it somewhere?
That would be a point of pride I would think-the only song in that 6 years period to have been partially penned by Elvis? If he did not mention it in public surely his family, wife, parents, close friends etc...would have known the story.
After Elvis died surely one of those people would have mentioned this tidbit in someway (knowing how people try to make money off of the Elvis connections)-but as far as I can find in a quick search on the web and looking thru my country western music history books I find no mention of it...........
The only mention is by Marty and Lamar that I can find.

Have you noticed that a lot of stories are told by the MM mafia about Elvis and other people but the other person involved in the story usually never confirms or denies it.

[Brian]

Johnny Horton: 'Live at the Louisiana Hayride'

Tracklist
1 Honky Tonk Man Lyrics 3:35
2 One Woman Man Lyrics 2:54
3 John Henry Lyrics 3:47
4 Jambalaya Lyrics 2:49
5 Johnny Reb Lyrics 2:23
6 Battle of New Orleans Lyrics 2:33
7 When It's Springtime in Alaska Lyrics 3:05
8 Sal's Got a Sugar Lip Lyrics 1:46
9 Sink the Bismark Lyrics 3:04
10 Whispering Pines Lyrics 3:52

Could be one of these.

most of those songs came out in 1958-1959 I don't think it's any of them.

Jambalaya was written by Hank Williams

[sasha]

Have you noticed that a lot of stories are told by the MM mafia about Elvis and other people but the other person involved in the story usually never confirms or denies it.

Hope everyone notices this.

[Brian]

Hope everyone notices this.

I don't mean that they are lying if that's what your implying.

[T_J]

I don't mean that they are lying if that's what your implying.

I don't think they tell outright lies as much as some people might believe, but I do think they stretch the truth a little sometimes and/or for purposes of ego pretend to have a clearer memory of certain events than they do. Some also show too little discretion regarding how personal they get.

This would be a very specific and strange thing to make up though. If true, perhaps the reason Horton didn't publicise it is that questions might then have been raised about songwriting royalties.

[Brian]

I don't think they tell outright lies as much as some people might believe, but I do think they stretch the truth a little sometimes and/or for purposes of ego pretend to have a clearer memory of certain events than they do. Some also show too little discretion regarding how personal they get.
.

I just meant we get most of the stories about Elvis through the MM mafia and not the other parties involved in the story they are telling at the moment.
That's just a fact so it doesn't surprise me that we haven't heard someone mention this from Johnny Horton's point of view.
For example Sonny West has said that director Don Siegel came backstage in Vegas to offer Elvis the role of Dirty Harry now this story could very well be true because Siegel liked Elvis and worked with him before, and was impressed with his performance in Flaming Star.
Also a lot of actors were offered the role before Clint Eastwood got it but Don Siegel never confirmed or denied that he personally offered Elvs the role.

Regarding this story it could be because all the people from Johnny Horton's family are all deceased or something like that.

[sasha]

I don't mean that they are lying if that's what your implying.

Just stretching the truth . Improvising to make it more interesting.

[KPM]

Have you noticed that a lot of stories are told by the MM mafia about Elvis and other people but the other person involved in the story usually never confirms or denies it.

In this instance I just think it seems odd-since its so well known that Elvis did not write. The one instance he is suppose to have co-written with another well known singer/writer-and its never come out thru the Johnny Horton side? His 2nd wife was married to Hank Williams and was known to find ways to make a buck off of the connection to Williams-so it would seem that an opportunity such as this would be right up her alley
Also Johnny Cash was a very good friend of Horton (and we all know he toured with Elvis in the 50s)but in all JCs discussions about Elvis or Horton-he also has never mentioned this that I can find.
Too me thats odd-that no one who was close to Horton ever brought up this amazing information. It would be great to hear the song and see how good it was-the widow could have played this up after Elvis died-made a pretty penny. Just odd.

[Brian]

In this instance I just think it seems odd-since its so well known that Elvis did not write. The one instance he is suppose to have co-written with another well known singer/writer-and its never come out thru the Johnny Horton side? His 2nd wife was married to Hank Williams and was known to find ways to make a buck off of the connection to Williams-so it would seem that an opportunity such as this would be right up her alley
Also Johnny Cash was a very good friend of Horton (and we all know he toured with Elvis in the 50s)but in all JCs discussions about Elvis or Horton-he also has never mentioned this that I can find.
Too me thats odd-that no one who was close to Horton ever brought up this amazing information. It would be great to hear the song and see how good it was-the widow could have played this up after Elvis died-made a pretty penny. Just odd.

some reasonable explainations

1.The song was probably an unmemorable one so Horton probably didn't think much of it.
2. Johnny Horton himself died long before the Elvis death craze began so he wasn't here to take advantage of that like so many others and he never mentioned it to his wife.
3. If it was a hit song and Horton's wife admitted Elvis co-wrote it then Elvis' estate might could take action and sue for half of the income it's generated.
These could be a possible.

The possilble reason the Memphis mafia don't know the name of the song

1. Johnny Horton had already begun writing the song when he asked Elvis for help completing it so Elvis helps him write a couple lines or words to it but didn't actually know the name of the completed song.

[KPM]

some reasonable explainations

1.The song was probably an unmemorable one so Horton probably didn't think much of it.
2. Johnny Horton himself died long before the Elvis death craze began so he wasn't here to take advantage of that like so many others and he never mentioned it to his wife.
3. If it was a hit song and Horton's wife admitted Elvis co-wrote it then Elvis' estate might could take action and sue for half of the income it's generated.
These could be a possible.

The possilble reason the Memphis mafia don't know the name of the song

1. Johnny Horton had already begun writing the song when he asked Elvis for help completing it so Elvis helps him write a couple lines or words to it but didn't actually know the name of the completed song.

Yes those are possible answers-but none I would call probable.
Johnny Horton died long before the Elvis death craze-but not long before the Elvis craze began-and a great topic of conversation would seem to be-
"Elvis helped me write the song-"*763889@@@@" long before he was the King of Rock in Roll.
I mean it would be an attention getter-and we all see how people love to drop Elvis's name into their lives just for the connection and added credibility.
I doubt that the estate would try to collect on a song Elvis may have contributed to since obviously Elvis gave his contribution to Horton no strings attached (if true)
Whether it was a good song or a bad song-it still would be worth something to the widow just in the telling of the story. How many people have made a dollar off Elvis just from a story-and the retelling of it?
But you are correct you gave "possible" answers.
A few other possible answers are that it is made up-or Elvis himself made it up........
or that he knew his contributions was so small that it did not warrant any credit.

[Brian]

Yes those are possible answers-but none I would call probable.
Johnny Horton died long before the Elvis death craze-but not long before the Elvis craze began-and a great topic of conversation would seem to be-
"Elvis helped me write the song-"*763889@@@@" long before he was the King of Rock in Roll.
I mean it would be an attention getter-and we all see how people love to drop Elvis's name into their lives just for the connection and added credibility.
I doubt that the estate would try to collect on a song Elvis may have contributed to since obviously Elvis gave his contribution to Horton no strings attached (if true)
Whether it was a good song or a bad song-it still would be worth something to the widow just in the telling of the story. How many people have made a dollar off Elvis just from a story-and the retelling of it?
But you are correct you gave "possible" answers.
A few other possible answers are that it is made up-or Elvis himself made it up........
or that he knew his contributions was so small that it did not warrant any credit.

A lot of stories other celebrities were telling about Elvis came out after his death it didn't happen so much while he was alive.
It was almost everybody having Elvis stories after he died but not while he was alive probably because since he was dead he wasn't here to dispute the stories.

This story about Horton reminds me of the story Tom Jones tells about Elvis giving him a song in his Las Vegas suite.
Jones talks up the part about Elvis going into the bathroom and singing the song to him while he was in the shower but i'm interested in what song it was since Elvis had the song but chose to give it to Tom.
Tom never ever mentions what the name of the song was when telling the story.
I've always been fascinated by songs Elvis was suppose to record but didn't as I like to listen to them to find out the quality.
I would be interested in knowing the name of this Horton song that Elvis co-wrote so I could see how good it is.

[KPM]

A lot of stories other celebrities were telling about Elvis came out after his death it didn't happen so much while he was alive.
It was almost everybody having Elvis stories after he died but not while he was alive probably because since he was dead he wasn't here to dispute the stories.

This story about Horton reminds me of the story Tom Jones tells about Elvis giving him a song in his Las Vegas suite.
Jones talks up the part about Elvis going into the bathroom and singing the song to him while he was in the shower but i'm interested in what song it was since Elvis had the song but chose to give it to Tom.
Tom never ever mentions what the name of the song was when telling the story.
I've always been fascinated by songs Elvis was suppose to record but didn't as I like to listen to them to find out the quality.
I would be interested in knowing the name of this Horton song that Elvis co-wrote so I could see how good it is.

That is exactly why I wondered what the title was-to see the quality of he song.

[waymore44]

If I had to pick the most Elvis lyric from what was listed, I would say "One Woman Man". "Honky Tonk Man" would be a trip to find out Elvis co-wrote especially since when dwight Yoakam does it live, he kind of does an Elvis sort of vocal on the verses.

I don't know how we will ever know this information.