Ernie Barton

Ernie Barton (* 1930 in Tallahassee , Florida ) is an American rockabilly and rock 'n' roll musician. Barton was also a producer, songwriter and studio musician for Sun Records between 1957 and 1961.

Life

Childhood and youth

Ernie Barton was born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1930. Barton was the son of a captain and grew up in Daytona Beach , Florida. In general, little is known about Barton's early life.

Career

In the 1950s, Barton sold his Daytona Beach home and moved to Memphis , Tennessee . There he was hired in 1957 by Sam Phillips , owner of Sun Records and Sun Studios. At first Barton was mainly active as an artist at the label, later he also took on tasks as a producer, worked as a songwriter and as a studio musician in the Sun Studio. He held his first session on April 6, 1957, but not a single one of the recorded pieces was published. A second session for Sun followed in March 1958, with Barton being accompanied by Roland Janes , Jimmy Van Eaton and Sid Manker . This session resulted in Barton's first single, Stairway to Nowhere / Raining the Blues , which was released in the summer of 1958 on Sun's sub-label Phillips International . The male background choir gave both titles a pop twist with the constant “doodley wop” being heard in the background. Billboard gave the record a good review, but in the end it did not achieve any notable success.

Barton's second single on Phillips International, Open the Door, Richard / Shut Your Mouth , released in 1959, has been controversial among music historians since the 1980s. Since a single copy of the single has never appeared, many doubt that it was even released (even if it appears in the Phillips catalog), despite Barton himself confirming that it was released. When the A-side was released on a compilation in the 1980s, it turned out that the title had already been republished once under Billy Lee Riley's name. Riley himself said that Barton and Riley recorded the song together during a "party session" at the Sun Studio and that their voices sounded very much the same.

In 1959, after Jack Clement and Bill Justis left Sun, Sam Phillips appointed Barton as the label's new producer. Barton then brokered his wife Bobby Jean Farrabee to Sun, who had a single release in 1960. Since Sam Phillips did not want to publish any further material by Barton himself, Barton left Sun. In the 1960s he had two single releases on Memphis record labels, including The Battle of Earl K. Long , a Johnny Cash- style piece about Governor Earl Long and the song Ain't I'm a Mess .

Barton later moved to Midland , Texas . He was interviewed by Colin Escott in 1987, but then disappears.

Discography

year	title	Label #
1958	Stairway to Nowhere / Raining the Blues	Phillips Int. 3528
1959	Open the Door, Richard / Shut Your Mouth	Phillips Int. 3541
	The Man with a Heart of Gold / The Battle of Earl K. Long	Honesty 605
1965	Ain't I'm a Mess / Walk with Me (as Bart Barton)	E&M 1651
Unpublished titles
1959	She's gone away Wedding bells	Phillips Int.
	The Battle of Earl K. Long (old version) The Man with a Heart of Gold (old version)	Phillips Int.

Web links

• biography
• Discography with audio samples