Four Country Songs You Didn't Know Had Sequels

4. El Paso

El Paso is a 1959 hit written and performed by Marty Robbins. It is told from the perspective of a man who falls deeply in love with a girl named Feleena who works in a Mexican cantina. When another man begins to pursue her, the narrator's deep jealousy leads him to challenge the interloper. The resulting gunfight ends in the other man's death, and the narrator is forced to flee to escape the law. But his love for Feleena is too great and he eventually returns to see her once more. Tragically he is shot to death just as he sees his love one last time. It is a sad story.

Robbins would go on to write two sequels, both of which were popular at the time they were released. The first, Feleena (From El Paso), is not technically a sequel. Instead it tells the same story but from Feleena's perspective. It reveals that after the cowboy was shot to death in the first son, Feleena took his gun and turned it on herself in her grief.

The second sequel is El Paso City, which takes place in contemporary times. The narrator is looking down from a plane upon El Paso, which leads him to remember the legend of the cowboy and Feleena. As he ponders this, he mentions how he often feels a deep connection to the cowboy and alludes to a past life.

3. The Devil Went Down to Georgia

The Devil Went Down to Georgia is an excellent song. In it, the Devil receives his comeuppance when he challenges the wrong person to a fiddle duel, and is sent packing back to Hell. So when I found out that The Charlie Daniels Band recorded a sequel, I was pretty stoked. Did it live up to my expectations? If you have ever heard The Devil Comes Back to Georgia, you can probably figure out the answer. When I first heard Johnny Cash, I was like "Yeah!!!" but then I heard Marty Stuart's voice and my expectations were shot.

It's not a bad song, for sure, but all in all it's just a retread of the first, both in plot and in tune, with a few little differences here and there.

2. Big Bad John

Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John is a classic. It is a tale of a mysterious miner surrounded by rumor and legend which ends in tragedy when the titular character sacrifices himself to save his fellow miners from a collapsing mine.

So how many sequels does Big Bad John have? A grand total of three. Two were written by Dean; The Cajun Queen and Little Bitty Big John. The Cajun Queen is a pretty crazy song. John's Cajun lady friend (she's mentioned in the first song) shows up. She is unconcerned by the fact he died and goes ahead and brings him back to life. They get married, grow old, and end up with 110 grandchildren, no joke. Little Bitty Big John is about John and the Cajun lady's son. It seems to disregard The Cajun Queen and John still seems to be dead.

The last sequel was performed by Dottie West. Called My Big John, it has a different take on John's Cajun girl friend than The Cajun Queen. Sadly I cannot find a good link anywhere.

1. North to Alaska

This song was one of Johnny Horton's best. The story is about George Pratt, his best friend Sam McCord, and George's brother Billy and their quest during the Yukon gold rush to strike it rich. Well, they do strike it rich, and George asks Sam to go back to the lower 48 and find him a ring so he can propose to his girlfriend. 

This is where the song ends. The thought that there was a sequel never crossed my mind. Then one day I happened to see a John Wayne movie called North to Alaska. My mind was blown. As it turns out, Horton wrote the song as a tie-in to the movie. It plays during the opening credits and then the movie picks up where the song ends. Sam (John Wayne) goes to Seattle to bring George's girl back to Alaska. What he finds however is that she got hitched while George was away. Sam isn't sure what to do, so he brings back a prostitute called Angel as a substitute. Crazy hijinks ensue. 

Maybe I'm cheating a little by counting a movie as a sequel, but on the other hand it was a good movie. Being a pretty basic John Wayne film, I enjoyed it for what it was. If you like the song and/or John Wayne, you should check it out if you ever have the chance.