Oklahoma Hills

Biography

Jack Guthrie (13 November 1915–15 January 1948) was born Leon Jerry Guthrie in Olive, Oklahoma, USA. He was a cousin of Woody Guthrie. His rewritten version of a Woody Guthrie song "Oklahoma Hills" (Capitol 201) reached #1 in 1945, staying on the charts for 19 weeks. The b side, "I'm A Brandin' My Darlin' With My Heart", reached #5 later that year. At the time the record became a hit Jack Guthrie was in the U.S. Army and stationed in the Pacific Theater. As soon as he got out of the service he w...

Jack Guthrie (13 November 1915–15 January 1948) was born Leon Jerry Guthrie in Olive, Oklahoma, USA. He was a cousin of Woody Guthrie. His rewritten version of a Woody Guthrie song "Oklahoma Hills" (Capitol 201) reached #1 in 1945, staying on the charts for 19 weeks. The b side, "I'm A Brandin' My Darlin' With My Heart", reached #5 later that year. At the time the record became a hit Jack Guthrie was in the U.S. Army and stationed in the Pacific Theater. As soon as he got out of the service he wrote and recorded more songs, played live gigs up and down the West Coast. His version of "Oakie Boogie" (Capitol 341), a hit at #3 in 1947, is considered a candidate for the first rock and roll record. In July 1947 he was admitted to a hospital with tuberculosis. He died in 1948 in Livermore, California.

Although the labels listed Jack Guthrie and His Oklahomans as the artist, in reality Guthrie had no band. The studio brought in some of its better musicians to back Guthrie. Many of them, Porky Freeman, Red Murrell, Cliffie Stone, and Billy Hughes among them, were stars in their own right. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.