Hoyt Axton

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Hoyt Axton on the cover of Southbound (1975)

Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor.

He was born in Duncan, Oklahoma and was raised in Comanche, Oklahoma. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, had her own spot in popular culture history and co-wrote the classic rock 'n' roll song "Heartbreak Hotel", which became the first major hit for Elvis Presley. Some of Hoyt's own songs were also later recorded by Elvis. Hoyt served in the US Navy aboard the USS Princeton (LPH-5), before pursuing a music career.

He began singing folk songs in San Francisco nightclubs in 1958. In the early 1960s he released a folksy album titled Greenback Dollar (recorded at the legendary Troubadour), whose title song became a 1963 hit for The Kingston Trio. Axton released numerous albums well into the 1980s, changing somewhat with the times but always retaining an honest, down-home and fairly "country" approach to his music.

Axton had many minor singing hits of his own, such as "Boney Fingers" ("Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney fingers, boney fingers"), "When the Morning Comes", and 1979's "Della and the Dealer" (which he sang in a guest appearance on WKRP in Cincinnati). His vocal style was notable for its distinctive baritone and for its use of characterization: at times gritty and defiant, other times exceptionally mellow, occasionally deliberately cartoonish. One song, "Officer Ray," is styled in self-parody, as Hoyt softly croons curses at a sadistic police officer that would seem more likely to come from the narrator of "The Pusher": "Officer Ray / .... / May you have a bad day / May your wife run away/ With a hippie."

But his most lasting contributions were songs made famous by others: "Never Been to Spain" (Three Dog Night), the previously mentioned "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio), "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf), and "No-No Song" (Ringo Starr) and for an array of others, including Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, John Denver and Linda Ronstadt. They are songs heard by millions over the years, few of whom could likely name Hoyt as the author. His most popular and signature song, "Joy to the World" (Three Dog Night), was No. 1 on the charts for six straight weeks in 1971, making it the top hit of the year.

A large man, 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, from Bonanza to the movies Gremlins and The Black Stallion. He sang the jingle "Head For the Mountains" in the Busch beer commercials in the 1980s (He also sung The Ballad of Big Mac touting the recently released McDonalds hamburger the Big Mac on screen in a 1969 commercial he filmed for the hamburger franchise).

Axton spent some time struggling with alcohol and 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, about a pound. His wife explained later that she offered Hoyt marijuana to relieve pain and stress following a 1995 stroke; both were fined and given deferred sentences.

Hoyt never fully recovered from his stroke, and still had to use a wheelchair much of the time. He died of a heart attack in Victor, Montana, on October 26, 1999, at the age of 61. Axton had suffered a severe heart attack two weeks earlier and experienced another one while undergoing surgery in Montana.

1 Selective list of songs
2 Movies and television
3 Reference
4 External links

[edit] Selective list of songs

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

"Greenback Dollar" covered by The Kingston Trio
"The Pusher," covered by Steppenwolf on their debut album in 1968
"No-No Song," which became a #3 hit for Ringo Starr in March 1975
"Never Been To Spain", covered by Three Dog Night 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 (also a big hit for The Finish band Hanoi Rocks in the '80s)
"The Morning Is Here" (1974)
"Boney Fingers" (1974)
"Della and the Dealer" (1979)
"Hotel Ritz" (1979)
"Rusty Ol' Halo" (1979)
"Sweet Misery" covered by John Denver

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.