"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" sold over ten-million records. Disney's Little Golden record alone, sold 750,000 copies. Fess Parker's popular version reached # 5 with a million copies sold and can still be found today on CD! Fess recalls though his humble beginnings, about his chart toping hit. According to Fess, "By August 21, 1954, I had the revised lyrics. They asked me to go on the soundstage where I recorded it and they didn't even know how to spell my name! Where they wanted me to sing, they had it say: 'F-E-Z'"!!
"I've walked around for 40 years in the warm glow from people enjoying and remembering that series," Says Fess Parker, whose portrayal of our beloved frontier hero Davy Crockett created the '55 craze! "Anywhere in the country I go, from Maine to Washington state, that good feeling is there." Nowadays Fess Parker is a gentleman vintner in Southern California's Santa Barbara. The Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard wines have amassed over 32 awards and medals from major national competitions.
The Davy Crockett Craze that took everyone by surprise, even surprised our Davy, "I was totally surprised. I think I first got a clue to the thing when I was sent out on tour. I encountered huge crowds and shook hands with 3,000 children a day in the department stores. I'd never dreamed that I would be asked to speak at the Rotary, or have dinner with this person or that person, from breakfast until it was time to go to bed--- and then on to the next city. It was almost overwhelming, but I managed to get through."
When asked, for this article, what piece of Davy Crockett memorabilia came to mind after, 40 years, our once "King of the Wild Frontier" gave this reply, "The lunch box, because I seem to hear a lot of people comment that they've passed them down from themselves to their children and sometimes even to their grandchildren, something so useful I find just amazing!" |
