4 Country Songs From 1959 That Give Me Instant Goosebumps Every Time
An essayist highlights four country songs released in 1959 that they say reliably give them goosebumps, praising the genre’s storytelling, arrangements and harmonies. The songs pair memorable performances with stories of love, loss, mortality and disaster.
Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” ends with its wounded narrator dying in his lover’s arms, while The Browns’ “The Three Bells” marks a life through birth, marriage and death. Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High And Rising” draws on the 1937 Ohio River flood, which killed hundreds and displaced one million people; Johnny Horton’s “When It’s Springtime In Alaska (It’s Forty Below)” ends with the singer’s character mortally wounded by a woman’s fiancé.
- Four 1959 country songs are praised for their emotional storytelling.
- Cash’s song recalls a 1937 flood that displaced one million people.
- The tracks weave together love, mortality and disaster.
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Country music recordings from 1959 often used clear narratives and carefully arranged vocals to bring listeners close to a song’s characters and events. The four songs discussed here draw on familiar themes such as love, loss and the stages of life, as well as a major historical flood.
Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” and Johnny Horton’s “When It’s Springtime In Alaska (It’s Forty Below)” tell stories that end in the narrators’ deaths. The Browns’ “The Three Bells” follows a person from birth through marriage to death, while Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High And Rising” evokes the 1937 Ohio River flood, which killed hundreds and displaced around a million people.