Singing About Johnny Horton's Alaska Quiz

Answer: Both songs

'North to Alaska' was written to be sung over the opening credits of the 1960 movie with the same name, to provide the back story to the events about to be shown. It sets up the romantic entanglements of Sam McCord (John Wayne), George Pratt (Stewart Grainger) and Angel (Capucine), and the efforts of Frankie Cannon (Ernie Kovacs) to steal their claim.

'When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)', to give the song its rarely-used full title, was a 1959 single, Horton's first Number One on the country chart, where it spent 23 weeks in that spot. It starts with the singer heading into town after two years prospecting in the wilds of Alaska.

Answer: North to Alaska

As the lyrics relate, he tells Sam, "I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land / For one small band of gold to place on sweet little Jenny's hand." The song doesn't let us know that this love is ill-fated - when the movie starts, Sam heads back to Seattle to collect Jenny, only to find her married to another man. He selects Angel, a prostitute, to take her place and they journey back to Nome where Sam is waiting.

Answer: When It's Springtime in Alaska

As soon as the singer hits town, he heads to the saloon, looking for alcohol and action. There he found action a-plenty, in the form of a singer named Redhead Lil.

"Pulled into Fairbanks, the city was a-boom.
So I took a little stroll to the Red Dog sea-loon.
As I walked in the door, the music was clear."

Answer: North to Alaska

"Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two
With George Pratt his partner and brother Billy too
They crossed the Yukon river and they found the bonanza gold."

In the movie, when Sam arrives with Angel George rejects her out of hand, but Sam's younger brother (played by teenage heartthrob Fabian) is mighty interested. Trouble is, Angel has fallen for Sam, who she thought had intended to marry her himself.

Answer: North to Alaska

Their claim seems to have been located near Nome, according to the first verse.

"They crossed the Yukon river and they found the bonanza gold
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome."

Later on George identifies it as the ideal spot in which to build a honeymoon home for Jenny. And so the movie can start, with Sam on his way to fetch Jenny.

Answer: When It's Springtime in Alaska

Entranced by Lil's voice, the singer starts dancing with her all around the saloon. The lyrics refer to several kinds of dance or dance move.

"We did the eskeemo hop all around the sea-loon.
With a caribou crawl and a grizzly bear hug.
We did our dance on a kodiak rug.
The song she kept singin' made a man's blood run cold."

Possibly he should have been warned by this premonitory chill.

Answer: Both songs

In 'North to Alaska', the second verse describes Sam McCord traveling by dogsled:

"Sam crossed the Majestic mountains to the valleys far below
He talked to his team of huskies
As he mushed on through the snow."

'When It's Springtime in Alaska' opens with:
"I mushed from Point Barrow through a blizzard of snow.
Been out prospectin' for two years or so."

Given the era (before widespread use of motorised vehicles) and the terrain (Alaska in the winter has a lot of snow!), it is hardly surprising that travel over long distances involved dogsleds.

Answer: When It's Springtime in Alaska

This is a country song, so you should have known that the romance was too good to be true. As the singer is dancing his head off, and falling in love, Lil's fiance enters, and things take a decidedly awkward turn.

"I was as innocent as I could be.
I didn't know Lil was Big Ed's wife-to-be.
He took out his knife and he gave it a throw."

Answer: North to Alaska

We are told both that the partners left Seattle for the Yukon in 1892, and that by 1901 they had struck it rich, and George was wanting to settle down with the woman he had held dear over the intervening years. His words in the opening song offer sage advice for his partner to consider at the end of the movie: "'Cause a man needs a woman to love him all the time / Remember Sam a true love is so hard to find."

Answer: When It's Springtime in Alaska

Big Ed's aim with his knife was pretty good, and the singer is definitely injured. We do not actually know whether the final lines of the song are an accurate prediction, or a pessimistic response to the realisation that everything had gone pear-shaped.

"When it's springtime in Alaska I'll be six feet below.
(When it's springtime in Alaska he'll be six feet below.)"