Elton Britt

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Elton Britt (July 27, 1912–June 23, 1972), born James Britt Baker, was a country music singer, songwriter and author who sang and played guitar since his mid-teens.

Elton Britt was born in Marshall, Arkansas, (actually in Zack, just outside Marshall) and gained his first success as a singing sensation with the Los Angeles-based "Beverly Hillbillies" band in Los Angeles before moving to New York City in the mid-1930s.

Elton Britt's voice was a pleasant, easy tenor that could handle cowboy tunes and wistful ballads with equal facility. He embellished some of his songs with a high yodel that often reached a full octave above the melody, which became one of his trademarks. He recorded over 600 sides and 60 albums for RCA 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 "Detour," "Chime Bells," "Maybe I'll Cry Over You," "Pinto Pal," and the million-selling wartime hit "There's A Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere." A singer, bandleader, radio and television performer, songwriter and standard-setting yodeler, he starred in at least two films in the late 1940s and had hit records as late as "The Jimmie Rodgers Blues" in 1968. He died June 23, 1972.