Elton Britt

Elton Britt leveraged an uncanny resemblance to Jimmie Rodgers—augmented by superior yodeling skill and vocal range—into the era’s dominant country recording, “There’s a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere,” which moved four million units during the early 1940s. Born James Britt Baker on June 27, 1913, in Zack, Arkansas, he first picked up guitar and began performing locally as a mid-teen. In 1930 the Beverly Hill Billies came back to Arkansas seeking a replacement singer; Baker won the audition, received the name Elton Britt, and remained with the group for three years of performances and sessions. He relocated to New York in 1933, opening that phase of his career inside the quartet Pappy, Zeke, Ezra & Elton before cutting sides later in the decade both alone and alongside the Wenatchee Mountaineers, Zeke Manners’ Gang, and the Rustic Rhythm Trio.

A 1939 RCA Bluebird contract, together with his close association with songwriter and producer Bob Miller, launched Britt’s commercial ascent. Miller supplied the singer’s principal early successes—“Chime Bells,” “Rocky Mountain Lullaby,” “Buddy Boy,” “Driftwood on the River,” and the 1942 wartime anthem “There’s a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere”—which patriotic listeners embraced much as earlier audiences had embraced “Over There.” That same year President Franklin Roosevelt summoned the performer, promoted as “the World’s Highest Yodeler,” to the White House for a rendition of the hit.

Although national charts did not yet exist when the song peaked, Britt’s moment of greatest visibility had already passed by 1944. He nevertheless placed eleven singles inside the Country Top Ten through the remainder of the decade without reaching number one. “Someday” climbed to number two in 1946, while six additional releases—“Wave to Me, My Lady”/“Blueberry Lane,” “Detour,” “Gotta Get Together With My Gal,” “Candy Kisses,” and “Quicksilver”—reached the Top Five; a later version of “Chime Bells” stopped at number six. Britt stayed with RCA through more than fifty albums until switching to ABC/Paramount in 1957. He mounted a short-lived presidential campaign in 1960, returned to the charts at number 26 with “Jimmie Rodgers Blues” eight years afterward, and soon afterward withdrew from recording. He died on June 22, 1972.