Honky Tonk (1941 film)

Country Music Through The Years: 1940s

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• published: 01 Sep 2016
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I do not own the rights to anything on this video. For education purposes only. This is the third installment of my Country Music Through The Years series. This video covers the 1940s. In the early 1940s the country crooner (e.g. Jimmie Davis, Eddy Arnold) began to rise in popularity. Honky Tonk music was developed in the 1940s, with Ernest Tubb’s “Walking The Floor Over You” scoring the subgenre’s first hit. Western Swing remained a popular subgenre with the rise of Spade Cooley. Bluegrass was also developed during the 1940s, with Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs gaining popularity. After the US joined the war, patriotic and jingoistic country tunes were popular; Elton Britt’s “There’s A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere” scored the first Gold Record for a country song. Hank Williams began his career in the later years of the 1940s, he would go on to be arguably the most important figure in country music annals not to mention the impact he had on rockabilly and rock and roll. In 1944, Billboard introduced their Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart, which combined the previous “Hillbilly” and “Race” charts…”Pistol Packin’ Mama” by Al Dexter would be the first to top the chart. In 1949, they introduced the Country & Western Records Most Played by Folk Disk Jockeys chart topped by Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Mule Train.” These 2 additional playlists along with the sales chart allowed for 3 different simultaneous number one songs. The playlist is below. 1940: (00:00) Jimmie Davis - "You Are My Sunshine" 1941: (02:42) Ernest Tubb - "Walking The Floor Over You" 1942: (05:17) Ted Daffan’s Texans - "Born To Lose" 1943: (07:57) Al Dexter And His Troopers - "Pistol Packin’ Mama" 1944: (10:42) Red Foley - "Smoke On The Water" 1945: (13:34) The Delmore Brothers - "Midnight Special" 1946: (16:32) Bill Monroe And The Bluegrass Boys - "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" 1947: (17:01) Hank Williams With His Bluegrass Boys - "Move It On Over" 1948: (19:47) Leon Payne - "Lost Highway" 1949: (22:26) Wayne Raney - "Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me" I loosely followed 4 rules when I put together this playlist: 1. I must like the song, I only included songs that I enjoy listening to, which meant at times the huge hit of a given year might not be included. 2. The track needs to have made some impact on the billboard charts (during the chart years). It didn't have to hit number 1, but it needed to have made some impact. 3. It should be a good representation of the sound of the era, so this mostly eliminated any one off throw back or novelty hits. 4. One song per artist in the entire playlist. Note: Songs are included in the year they were first released, not necessarily their peak year on the charts. Thanks for watching.