When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)

About When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)

"When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" is a 1959 single by Johnny Horton released through Columbia Records. The single was Johnny Horton's sixth release on the country chart and the first of three number ones on the country chart. The single spent twenty-three weeks on the chart. The song was a marginally successful crossover, reaching #85 on the Music Vendor Pop Top 100. The song takes place in Fairbanks, Alaska in the springtime. The narrator/singer is a prospector making a trip to Fairbanks after two years in the wilderness; he decides to visit a saloon and hears "redheaded Lil" singing the title words. He and Lil spend the evening dancing, but the singer is unaware that Lil is "Big Ed's wife-to-be." Big Ed discovers the two dancing and throws his knife at the singer, who predicts that he will not survive his wound: "When it's springtime in Alaska, I'll be six feet below." The lyrics say the temperature outside is −40 °F (−40 °C). While it is very rare for the temperature to actually be that low in the springtime in Fairbanks, it has happened. A low temperature of −40 °F (−40 °C) was recorded at the Fairbanks International Airport on March 30, 1970. The coldest time of the year in Fairbanks is around January 13 of each year, with night-time low temperatures at this time averaging around −23 °F (−31 °C) and daytime high temperatures averaging around −4 °F (−20 °C). The coldest-ever low temperature recorded there was −62 °F (−52 °C), on December 28 and 29, 1961. more »

Year:

1971

44 Views

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I mushed from Point Barrow through blizzard of snow.
Been out prospectin' for two years or so.
Pulled into Fairbanks, the city was a-boom.
So I took a little stroll to the Red Dog sea-loon.

As I walked in the door, the music was clear.
The purtiest voice I had heard in two years.
The song she was singin' made a man's blood run cold.
When its springtime in Alaska it's forty below.
(When it's springtime in Alaska it's forty below.) 

It was Redhead Lil who was singin' so sweet.
I reached down and took the snow packs off my feet.
I reached for the gal who was singin' the tune.
We did the eskeemo hop all around the sea-loon.

With a caribou crawl and a grizzly bear hug.
We did our dance on a kodiak rug.
The song she kept singin' made a man's blood run cold.
When it's springtime in Alaska it's forty below.

I was as innocent as I could be.
I didn't now Lil was Big Ed's wife-to-be.
He took out his knife and he gave it a throw.
When it's springtime in Alaska I'll be six feet below.
(When it's springtime in Alaska he'll be six feet below.)

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Johnny Horton

John Gale "Johnny" Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country music and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs" which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s. With them, he had several major successes, most notably during 1959 with the song "The Battle of New Orleans" (written by Jimmy Driftwood), which was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and during 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". more »

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