Claude King: "Wolverton Mountain"

May 21, 1962 (3 weeks)

It really is never too late.

Claude King was born on February 5, 1923, approximately seven months before the birth of Hank Williams. The Hillbilly Shakespeare had been a country and western superstar for seven years until his untimely passing in the early hours of New Year's Day, 1953. Though he never looked a day under forty-five, he wouldn't live to see his thirtieth birthday. Though gone, the hits continued to be rolled out and his influence has been a constant presence ever since.

In the meantime, Claude King had been struggling. He earned a baseball scholarship to a university in Idaho, was a member of the US Navy during the Second World War and then worked in his native Shreveport, Louisiana. Music had been a lifelong passion but it was never more than a sideline until his late thirties. All of a sudden he became an overnight sensation.

The handful of country numbers that have been covered in this space haven't been all that special on the whole. I quite liked Jim Reeves' "He'll Have to Go" even if I don't have to hear it again but the rest haven't done much for me. "Wolverton Mountain" ought to be no different than many of those hokey tunes about soldiers fighting in old wars or going on adventures. Yet it succeeds where many of its contemporaneous singles fail.

A key difference may be that "Wolverton Mountain" comes from a place of truth, rather than mythology. Co-writer Merle Kilgore based it on his uncle Clifton Clowers residing in near isolation on the side of Woolverton Mountain in Arkansas. Did Kilgore desire Clowers' beautiful daughter as much as he leads us to believe in the song's lyrics? It's difficult to say but not out of the question give the time and part of the world we're dealing with. Perhaps there was a general interest in taking this young woman for the wife of many men in town, who knows.

So, as the singer, Claude King has declared dibs on this girl with lips that are "sweeter than honey". I like that he has a cautious optimism towards his pursuit. He knows full well that he's risking his life to make a play for her but he figures it's well worth the effort, as if he's one of those perpetually hopeful players on Squid Game or something. I buy this kind of narrative far more easily than one about brave war heroes risking their lives for their fellow men or whatever malarkey other country pop hits of the age had 

It's not completely to my taste and I don't quite understand why it managed to catch on the way it did but "Wolverton Mountain" is charming enough to make it a passable CHUM number one, one that deftly manages to transcend novelty into something that is just about compelling. And there's a welcome lightness to it that country songs don't normally have. Most would have gone the melodramatic route but I think that would have cheapened the song's overall message: I'm going to try to get this girl or literally die trying. Whatsmore, he has made his decision and he's comfortable with it. No need whatsoever to pull at the heartstrings.

Good on a mature Claude King for going about it the right way and having a smash hit as a result. There is indeed hope for all of us.

Score: 6

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Hey! Where's...?

On the Hot 100, Creedence Clearwater Revival hold the "dubious" distinction of having the most number two hits without ever getting to number one (a problem they certainly did not repeat in Canada as we'll eventually see). Their equivalent north of the border might well be Gene Pitney who reached the runner up spot on five separate occasions but never made the summit. Actually, doing as well as he did is still something of an achievement since his chart positions elsewhere paled in comparison. (It wouldn't be until the early part of 1989 that he would have a number one hit, reaching the top spot in the UK with a superlative version of "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" alongside Marc Almond) Still, if you're good enough to get to number two then you're entitled to be disappointed that you never got any higher. "(The Many Who Shot) Liberty Valance" his is first number two. He would go on to record better material over the years but even with just a so-so song, Pitney's voice alone is worth the price of entry. In this instance, I could go either way with this or "Wolverton Mountain" but we'll see if his remaining number twos really should've done better. Until next time, Gene-o!