Great American Heroes

A generation of American males spent part of their childhood wearing coonskin caps, thanks to the example set by Fess Parker in his immensely popular 1950s portrayal of Davy Crockett. In 1964, Parker made an album for RCA of a dozen songs paying tribute to Crockett and similar heroic figures of America's past, from statesmen (George Washington) to frontiersmen (Daniel Boone, who Parker played on television in the 1960s) to the Emancipator, 'Honest Abe Lincoln, he set the people thinkin'. Parker produced this album with Joe Reisman in Hollywood, and there is the grand corniness of Disney's 'Frontierland' about these songs and their brassy production. Parker wasn't a great singer, but albums like this, targeted at Parker's young fans, weren't so much about the music as about celebrating an idealized American past. Hearing Parker's Ballad Of Davy Crockett will send those who recall that simpler era up to Mom's attic in search of that 40-year-old coonskin cap.