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If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)
Artist: Jimmy Driftwood
Author: trad./Jimmy Driftwood
Label: RCA
Year: 1957
Teacher from Arkansas who wrote it in 1936 to pimp up his history class; the beginning of the saga song saga. On his 1958 debut album Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs. Restricted airplay for abundant use of 'hell' and 'damn' in the lyrics.
Covers:
Johnny Horton [n°1 US in a much shorter version]
Lonnie Donegan [n°2 UK]
Homer & Jethro [parody as The Battle Of Kookamonga]
Marc Taynor [as La Bataille de Waterloo]
Les Humphries Singers [same melody in their hit Mexico]
Eric Weissberg [as Eighth Of January in film Deliverance; the eighth of January 1815 was the date of the real Battle of New Orleans (see footnote)]
Big Audio Dynamite [partly in The Battle Of All Saints Road]
Gerard Cox [as Het Gras Is Nergens Groener Dan Bij Feyenoord]
Asleep At The Wheel [as Eighth Of January]
Rhonda Vincent [as The Eighth Of January]
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (Napoleon selling Louisiana to the Americans to finance his wars) and Louisiana's admission to the Union (1812), the British attacked New Orleans. On the 8th of January 1815 American troops under Colonel Andrew Jackson defended the city victoriously. Later the French Quarter's central plaza was renamed after him. Defeating the British deserved a song: recordings as The Eighth Of January: Ted Gossett's String Band ('28), Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters ('28), Arkansas Barefoot Boys ('28 - Okeh) and Bookmiller Shannon ('59) from Timbo, Arkansas. That was a friend of Jimmy Driftwood's father Neil Morris and that's where Jimmy got the melody for his Battle Of New Orleans from. (Alan Lomax recording reissued on Southern Journey N°7 - Ozark Frontier)
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)