Elton Britt (born James Elton Baker; June 27, 1913 – June 22, 1972) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer, songwriter, and musician.

Biography

Britt was born on a farm near

Marshall, Arkansas Marshall is the largest city in and county seat of Searcy County. It is located in the Ozarks at the foot of the Boston Mountain Range south of America's first National River, the Buffalo National River. Marshall serves as a hub for area touri ...

. His father was James Baker, and he had two sisters, Gretta Sanders and Druse Baker, and a brother Arl Baker. Britt recorded over 600 sides and 60 albums for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

and other labels in more than a 30-year span, and is best known for such hit songs (several of which he wrote or co-wrote) as "

Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You) "Someday You'll Want Me to Want You" is a popular song published in 1944 by Jimmie Hodges. The song became a standard, recorded by many pop and country music singers. Background In April 1951, Hugh O. Starr, an inventor from Steubenville, Ohio ...

", "

Detour __NOTOC__ A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...

", "Chime Bells", "Maybe I'll Cry Over You", "Pinto Pal", and the million-selling wartime hit "

There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" is a patriotic anthem written in 1942 by Paul Roberts (songwriter), Paul Roberts and Shelby Darnell (a pseudonym for producer Bob Miller (composer, born 1895), Bob Miller). With Elton Britt's version ...

". The recording had sold a million discs by 1944 and it was awarded a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. Britt became the first country artist to be awarded a gold disc. A singer, bandleader, radio and television performer, songwriter and yodeler, he starred in at least two films in the late 1940s, and had hit records as late as 1968 with "The Jimmie Rodgers Blues". In 1960, as part of a publicity stunt, Britt briefly ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. On June 22, 1972, five days before his 59th birthday, Britt suffered a heart attack while driving his car and died in a

McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania McConnellsburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, Fulton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,150 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Fulton County. History The McConnellsburg Histor ...

, hospital the next day. He was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Broad Top, Pennsylvania.

In popular culture

His song "Uranium Fever" is featured in the ''

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...

'' video game ''

Fallout 4 ''Fallout 4'' is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the Fallout (series), ''Fallout'' series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for P ...

'' on the in-game radio.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Britt, Elton 1913 births 1972 deaths American country singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Arkansas People from Searcy County, Arkansas RCA Victor artists Yodelers Place of death missing 20th-century American singers Country musicians from Arkansas