This singer was credited for first using the term "Honky tonk" back in!
Question: He is best known for a 1942 hit called "Pistol packin' mama"
Answers: He is best known for a 1942 hit called "Pistol packin' mama"
Al Dexter sang Pistol Packin' Mama in '42
All I can hear in my head is Hank Williams Sr. singing "Let's go honky tonkin, honky tonkin.... " Seems like someone else made the term famous long before old Hank arrived on the scene. Goodness, I feel like I am in History class this morning.
I just read that there was a hit song in 1916 called "Down in Honky Tonk Town". This is before Dexter's time and what you're referring to.
The earliest source explaining the derivation of the term (spelled honkatonk) was an article published by the New York Sun in 1900 and widely reprinted in other newspapers. It states uncategorically that the term came from the sound of geese which led an unsuspecting group of cowboys to the flock instead of to the variety show they expected.
I think that might be Al Dexter