Hoyt Axton

Interestingly enough the WKRP In Cincinnati DVDs that I bought a couple weeks ago are still inspiring music related blogs. Anyone remember the episode when Jennifer's childhood sweet-heart arrives, guitar in hand, expecting her to honour the marriage proposal he made when they were kids? Turns out that character was played by singer/songwriter Hoyt Axton, who wrote a bunch of songs that others covered, the most popular being 'Joy To The World' (Three Dog Night), 'The Pusher' and 'Snowblind Friend' (Steppenwolf), 'Greenback Dollar' (Kingston Trio), and 'No-No Song' (Ringo Starr).

His mother was Mae Boren Axton, who co-wrote 'Heartbreak Hotel', so we know where his song-writing talents came from. Beyond his abilities to write songs, he was also quite a talented musician and singer (I'm a huge Kris Kristofferson fan, and I'm sure Kristofferson himself would agree that his songwriting talents supercede his vocal and guitar abilities). Primarily a country musician, he was also a fantastic blues and folk singer and occasionally got into some jazz too.

This song is 'Della and the Dealer', which was the song the WKRP gang helped his character record a demo tape to send to Nashville: