Elton Britt
1990 WMA Hall of Fame Member

The finest yodeler in western music, Elton Britt was born James Britt Baker in Marshall, Arkansas, and gained his first success as a yodeling sensation with the Beverly Hillbillies in Los Angeles before moving to New York City in the mid-1930's. He recorded over 600 sides and 60 albums for RCA and other labels in a more than thirty 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 artist, songwriter and standard-setting yodeler, he starred in at least two films in the late 1940's and had hit records as late as The Jimmie Rodgers Blues in 1968. He died June 23, 1972.