Hoyt Axton

Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton in his early years as a folksinger
Background information
Birth name	Hoyt Wayne Axton
Born	March 25, 1938(1938-03-25)
Origin	Duncan, Oklahoma, USA
Died	October 26, 1999(1999-10-26) (aged 61)
Genres	Country, folk
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1960–99
Associated acts	Three Dog Night, The Kingston Trio
Website	Hoyt Axton's Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Page

Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999)^[1] was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well known throughout the world. Among them were "Joy to the World", The Pusher and "Greenback Dollar".

Biography

He was born in Duncan, Oklahoma and spent his pre-teen years in Comanche, Oklahoma with his brother, John.^[2] His mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote the classic rock 'n' roll song "Heartbreak Hotel", which became the first major hit for Elvis Presley. Some of Hoyt Axton's own songs were also later recorded by Elvis. Hoyt Axton's father, John T. Axton, was a Navy officer stationed in Jacksonville, Florida; the family joined him there in 1949. Axton graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1956 and left town after Knauer's Hardware burned down on graduation night, a prank gone wrong.^[3] Axton attended Oklahoma State for a short length of time before following his father and enlisting in the Navy. Axton served aboard the USS Ranger before pursuing a music career.^[4]

After his discharge from the Navy on the West Coast, he began singing folk songs in San Francisco nightclubs. In the early 1960s he released his first folk album titled The Balladeer (recorded at the Troubadour); which included his song "Greenback Dollar", a 1963 hit for The Kingston Trio. Axton released numerous albums well into the 1980s.

Axton had many minor singing hits of his own, such as "Boney Fingers", "When the Morning Comes", and 1979's "Della and the Dealer", as well as "Jealous Man" (the latter two he sang in a guest appearance on WKRP in Cincinnati). His vocal style featured his distinctive bass-baritone (which later deepened to near-bass) and use of characterization.

But his most lasting contributions were songs made famous by others: "Joy to the World" and "Never Been to Spain" (Three Dog Night), the previously mentioned "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio), "The Pusher" and "Snowblind Friend" (Steppenwolf), "No-No Song" (Ringo Starr), and an array of others, covered by singers such as Joan Baez, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, and Anne Murray. Axton also sang a couple of duets with Linda Ronstadt, including "Lion in Winter" and "When the Morning Comes" (a top 40 country hit). His most popular and signature song, "Joy to the World", as performed by Three Dog Night, was number 1 on the charts for six straight weeks in 1971, making it the top hit of the year.

Axton first appeared on television in a David L. Wolper ABC production of The Story of a Folksinger (1963). In 1965, he appeared in an episode of Bonanza, then followed with other TV roles over the years. As he matured, Axton as an actor specialized in playing good ol' boys on television and in films. His face became well-known in the 1970s and 1980s through many TV and film appearances, such as in the movies Gremlins and The Black Stallion. He sang the jingle "Head For the Mountains" in the Busch beer commercials in the 1980s (and also "The Ballad of Big Mac", touting McDonald's Big Mac on screen in a 1969 commercial he filmed for the hamburger franchise).

Hoyt Axton on Austin City Limits in 1978

Axton spent some time struggling with cocaine addiction and several of his songs, including "The Pusher", "Snowblind Friend", and "No-No Song", partly reflect his negative drug experiences. He had been known as an opponent of drug use for many years when, in February 1997, he and his wife were arrested at their Montana home for possession of approximately 500 grams of marijuana, a little over a pound. His wife explained later that she offered Axton marijuana to relieve pain and stress following a 1995 stroke; both were fined and given deferred sentences.

Axton never fully recovered from his stroke, and still had to use a wheelchair much of the time. His mother, Mae, drowned in a hot tub at her Tennessee home in 1997. Hoyt Axton died of a heart attack in Victor, Montana, on October 26, 1999, at the age of 61.^[5] Axton had suffered a severe heart attack two weeks earlier and experienced another one while undergoing surgery in Montana.^[6]

On November 1, 2007 he and his mother were inducted posthumously to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee, Oklahoma.^[7][8]

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions			Label
		US Country	US	CAN Country
1962	The Balladeer	—	—	—	Horizon
1963	Greenback Dollar	—	—	—	Horizon
1963	Thunder 'n' Lightnin'	—	—	—	Horizon
1963	Saturday's Child	—	—	—	Horizon
1964	Hoyt Axton Explodes!	—	—	—	Vee Jay
1964	Long Old Road	—	—	—	Vee Jay
1965	Mr. Greenback Dollar Man	—	—	—	Surrey
1965	Hoyt Axton Sings Bessie Smith	—	—	—	Exodus
1969	My Griffin Is Gone	—	—	—	Columbia
1971	Joy To The World	—	—	—	Capitol
1971	Country Anthem	—	—	—	Capitol
1973	Less Than the Song	—	—	—	A&M
1974	Life Machine	21	—	—
1975	Southbound	27	188	—
1976	Fearless	26	171	—
1977	Snowblind Friend	36	—	—	MCA
1978	Road Songs	40	—	—	A&M
	Free Sailin'	42	—	—	MCA
1979	A Rusty Old Halo	27	—	14	Jeremiah
1980	Where Did the Money Go?	31	—	—
1981	Live!	30	—	—
1982	Pistol Packin' Mama	41	—	—
1984	American Dreams	—	—	—	Global
1990	Spin of the Wheel	—	—	—	DPI

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions					Album
		US Country	US	CAN Country	CAN	CAN AC
1963	"Green Back Dollar"	—	—	—	—	—	Greenback Dollar
1973	"Sweet Misery"	—	—	—	—	—	Less Than the Song
1974	"When the Morning Comes" (with Linda Ronstadt)	10	54	1	72	20	Life Machine
	"Boney Fingers"	8	—	8	—	31
1975	"Nashville"	61	106	—	—	—	Southbound
	"Lion in the Winter" (with Linda Ronstadt)	57	—	—	—	—
	"In a Young Girl's Mind"	—	—	—	—	—
1976	"Flash of Fire"	18	—	9	—	—	Fearless
	"Evangelina"	—	—	—	—	—
1977	"You're the Hangnail in My Life"	57	—	42	—	—	Snowblind Friend
	"Little White Moon"	65	—	—	—	—
1979	"Della and the Dealer"	17	—	—	—	—	A Rusty Old Halo
	"A Rusty Old Halo"	14	—	—	—	—
1980	"Wild Bull Rider"	21	—	—	—	—
	"Evangelina"	37	—	44	—	—
	"Boozers Are Losers (When Benders Don't End)"	—	—	—	—	—	Where Did the Money Go
	"Where Did the Money Go"	80	—	—	—	—
1981	"Flo's Yellow Rose"	78	—	—	—	—	single only
	"The Devil"	86	—	—	—	—	Live!
	"(We've Got To) Win This One"	—	—	—	—	—	single only
1982	"(When You Dance) You Do Not Tango"	—	—	—	—	—	Where Did the Money Go
	"There Stands the Glass"	—	—	—	—	—	Pistol Packin' Mama
	"Pistol Packin' Mama"	—	—	—	—	—
1983	"Warm Storms and Wild Flowers"	—	—	—	—	—
	"If You're a Cowboy"	—	—	—	—	—	single only

Selective list of songs

Among his best-known compositions (or co-writing credits) are:

• "I'm a Good Ole Rebel"
• "Greenback Dollar" covered by The Kingston Trio
• "The Pusher", covered by Steppenwolf on their debut album in 1968. This version was also used in the soundtrack of the classic 1969 motion picture "Easy Rider"
• "No-No Song", which became a #3 hit for Ringo Starr in March 1975
• "Never Been To Spain", covered by Three Dog Night, Waylon Jennings, and Elvis Presley
• "Joy to the World", the Three Dog Night hit from April 1971 which held US #1 for six weeks
• "Snowblind Friend" (1971), covered by Steppenwolf
• "Lightning Bar Blues" (1973), covered by Brownsville Station and Arlo Guthrie (also a big hit for the Finnish band Hanoi Rocks in the '80s)
• "Sweet Misery" (1974), covered by John Denver
• "The Morning Is Here" (1974)
• "Boney Fingers" (1974)
• "Della and the Dealer" (1979) (Reached the top 20 of the Billboard Country charts in the USA and the top 50 of the British pop charts)
• "Hotel Ritz" (1979)
• "Rusty Ol' Halo" (1979)
• "Hangnail In My Life" Snowblind Album (1977)

"Della and the Dealer" and "Hotel Ritz" both became minor hit singles in the UK after extensive playing by the British D.J. Terry Wogan on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast programme of the time.

Movies and television appearances

Movie appearances

• Smoky
• The Black Stallion
• Heart Like a Wheel
• Gremlins
• Cloud Dancer
• Disorganized Crime
• We're No Angels
• The Junkman
• Deadline Auto Theft
• Buried Alive
• Buried Alive II
• Dixie Lanes

• Liar's Moon
• Christmas Comes to Willow Creek
• Endangered Species
• Kingfish
• Harmony Cats

Television appearances

• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
• McCloud
• I Dream of Jeannie
• Domestic Life
• Dukes of Hazzard
• Bonanza
• Skinflint: A Country Christmas Carolhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326163/
• WKRP in Cincinnati (performed "Della and the Dealer" and "Jealous Man")
• Flo
• Diff'rent Strokes (as fictional country/western impresario "Wes McKinney")
• Murder, She Wrote
• Growing Pains
• Faerie Tale Theatre - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
• The Bionic Woman - "Road to Nashville"
• The Rousters

Axton also composed and sang the theme song to the short-lived television sitcom Flo. Several songs for the 1977 film Outlaw Blues was composed by Axton and sung by Peter Fonda.^[9]

The Rousters was a short-lived television sitcom (1983) with Axton as 'Cactus' Jack Slade. The show starred Chad Everett as Wyatt Earp III, the grandson of the legendary Wyatt Earp, and Jim Varney as his dim-witted brother, Evan.

In the mid '90s, Axton was chosen to host and narrate the profile series The Life and Times on The Nashville Network, in which a different country music figure was spotlighted each hour. His voice was heard throughout and he was seen on-camera doing the introduction and closing of each show in which he participated.

Axton also showed up as the narrator for two documentaries of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Race in 1982 and 1983 called Desperate Dreams.

References

1. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 34. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
2. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Biography: Hoyt Axton". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p1512. Retrieved September 6, 2011. 
3. ^ Larry Cohen Productions: North Florida Music Hall of Fame-Axton, Hoyt
4. ^ Buchalter, Judith (August 27, 1979). "Like His Pal Fearless, No One Messes with Hoyt Axton, the Mountain Man of Country Music". People 12 (9). http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20074438,00.html. Retrieved August 9, 2011. 
5. ^ Hinckley, David (October 27, 1999). "Songwriter Hoyt Axton Dead At 61 In Montana". New York Daily News. http://articles.nydailynews.com/1999-10-27/news/18115330_1_greenback-dollar-hoyt-axton-boney-fingers. Retrieved September 3, 2011. 
6. ^ Burke, Brad (October 27, 1999). "Axton, Hoyt Wayne (1938-1999)". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/A/AX001.html. Retrieved September 3, 2011. 
7. ^ Tulsa Today - Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Induction 2007
8. ^ MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK - "Thank God I'm from Oklahoma," inductee says
9. ^ Turner Classic Movies: Outlaw Blues (1977)

• Allen, Bob. (1998). "Hoyt Axton". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 23.

External links

• Hoyt Axton at the Internet Movie Database
• Hoyt Axton at AllRovi
• "Hoyt Axton". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11855. Retrieved 2008-03-27. 
• The Official Hoyt Axton Web site (Archive)
• Hoyt Axton's Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Fame Page
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Axton, Hoyt

Persondata
Name	Axton, Hoyt
Alternative names
Short description	American country singer
Date of birth	March 25, 1938
Place of birth
Date of death	October 26, 1999
Place of death