Great. Need to get that release.
Country Music
- Thread starter Mitchell Madness
- Start date
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Great. Need to get that release.
You're talking my language here ... thank you, a top shelf post.
Our next country star recorded his first hit way back in 1952. But, despite many attempts, he had to wait 9 long years until late 1961 for his next hit - but it was a big one that also crossed over and topped the pop charts, not just in the US but in the UK, Australia and worldwide. Yet he was already by then well known in the US as a TV host through the 1950's and he went on in the 1960's to do lots of TV and some movie appearances - and introducing the first muppet to the world. And if that wasn't enough, he kept his name in the limelight for decades to come through his national TV ads for the hugely successful sausage company he founded.
Jimmy Dean was born in 1928, in rural North Texas to working-class parents. Like virtually all of the country heroes I've covered so far in this history, Dean's depression-era upbringing saw him experience abject, dirt poor poverty. His alcoholic father floated in and out of his early life, once slaughtering little Jimmy's pet goat in order to put food on the table. His mother sewed clothes for Dean and his siblings using sugar sacks - thereby bringing Dean heavy ridicule from his peers. Dean later credited this hard-knock upbringing with giving him his entrepreneurial spirit, and burning desire to succeed, saying he would do anything to avoid the pain of cotton picking and drudgery of farm labour which took up much of his childhood.
Dean's only refuge from his difficult life was music. Strict Southern Baptists, Dean's family attended church every week, where Jimmy began singing in the choir. His mother also taught him to play piano at the age of 10, and Dean picked up other instruments along the way, including accordion, guitar and harmonica.
After their father shot through for good, Dean dropped out of high school to help provide for the family. He joined the Merchant Marines at age 16, and 2 years later enlisted in the Air Force. During WW2, Dean was stationed at a base near Washington DC, where he performed at local nightclubs. He first performed publicly with a band called the Tennessee Haymakers and, after his discharge from the military in 1948, remained in the area to form the band the Texas Wildcats. He eventually scored a record deal with Four Star records and in 1953, his first single, the breezy 'Bummin' Around', that caught the mood of a lot of discharged military, became a Top 5 hit at a time when Hank Williams (mostly), Eddy Arnold, Carl Smith and Webb Pierce were dominating the charts.
The laid back lyrics and melody of 'Bummin Around' sounds like the sort of number Dean Martin would sing. Sure enough, Dino eventually released his cover as a single and on an album in 1965, but here is Jimmy Dean's original # 5 hit from 1953 (recorded in 1952) -
Making the most of his fairly modest chart success, his charming, folksy personality and business-savvy helped him land his own radio show in Arlington, Virginia, where he performed music and interviewed music stars. Dean turned his successful radio hour into a nationally telecast CBS TV show in 1957. Called "The Jimmy Dean Show", Dean helped give exposure to then-unknown country stars including Patsy Cline and Roy Clark. However, despite recording plenty, further chart success eluded him until, finally in 1961, with his record contract just about to be terminated, he wrote and released 'Big Bad John', a song in which he narrates more than sings about a dangerous but ultimately selflessly brave coal miner who saves his fellow workers during a mine tragedy.
The single hit # 1 and crossed over, spending 5 weeks topping the pop charts, went worldwide, hitting # 2 in the UK, # 1 in Australia, sold several million, earned Dean a Grammy Award and put the singer firmly into the mainstream music business, and not just a TV host. Famed studio pianist Floyd Cramer, who was hired to play piano on the song, instead came up with the idea to use a hammer and a piece of steel instead, which defines the ballad's sound. Here is Jimmy on the Ed Sullivan Show -
"... Somebody said he came from New Orleans / Where he got in a fight over a Cajun Queen
And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand / Sent a Louisiana fellow to the promised land, big John ..."
The B-side of 'Big Bad John' 'I Won't Go Huntin With You Jake' features an overlooked novelty gem of a type which suited Dean's affable, lighthearted persona (he recorded quite a few of these light uptempo ditties). The slideshow features many of the top female country singers from the 1960's and 1980's -
Deciding to cash in on the success of 'Big Bad John', Dean, sticking to his narrative style that had worked so well for him, scored a # 16 hit in 1962 with a sequel song, 'The Cajun Queen'. The basically semi-plausible 'Big Bad John' story of the original is here transformed into the fantastical and mythical. The harmonica, lyrics and delivery style evoke the world of Louisiana swamps, voodoo and even zombies (Big John?) in a somewhat creepy, weird, but very cool (or rubbishy, depending on your taste) way -
Still in 1962, the era when epic ballads such as Johnny Horton's 'Battle of New Orleans' and 'The Bismarck', and Marty Robbin's 'El Paso', 'Big Iron' and 'The Battle of the Alamo' were all big hits, Dean yet again using his now well hone narrative style, reached # 3 (and # 8 on the pop chart) with a homage to the popular young President JFK, recalling his heroism in WW2 when the the boat he commanded, PT 109, was sliced in half by a Japanese destroye. Note the reference to the Australian Coastwatcher witness in the song -
So enough for today - the Jimmy Dean story and his music will conclude tomorrow.
Jimmy Dean was born in 1928, in rural North Texas to working-class parents. Like virtually all of the country heroes I've covered so far in this history, Dean's depression-era upbringing saw him experience abject, dirt poor poverty. His alcoholic father floated in and out of his early life, once slaughtering little Jimmy's pet goat in order to put food on the table. His mother sewed clothes for Dean and his siblings using sugar sacks - thereby bringing Dean heavy ridicule from his peers. Dean later credited this hard-knock upbringing with giving him his entrepreneurial spirit, and burning desire to succeed, saying he would do anything to avoid the pain of cotton picking and drudgery of farm labour which took up much of his childhood.
Dean's only refuge from his difficult life was music. Strict Southern Baptists, Dean's family attended church every week, where Jimmy began singing in the choir. His mother also taught him to play piano at the age of 10, and Dean picked up other instruments along the way, including accordion, guitar and harmonica.
After their father shot through for good, Dean dropped out of high school to help provide for the family. He joined the Merchant Marines at age 16, and 2 years later enlisted in the Air Force. During WW2, Dean was stationed at a base near Washington DC, where he performed at local nightclubs. He first performed publicly with a band called the Tennessee Haymakers and, after his discharge from the military in 1948, remained in the area to form the band the Texas Wildcats. He eventually scored a record deal with Four Star records and in 1953, his first single, the breezy 'Bummin' Around', that caught the mood of a lot of discharged military, became a Top 5 hit at a time when Hank Williams (mostly), Eddy Arnold, Carl Smith and Webb Pierce were dominating the charts.
The laid back lyrics and melody of 'Bummin Around' sounds like the sort of number Dean Martin would sing. Sure enough, Dino eventually released his cover as a single and on an album in 1965, but here is Jimmy Dean's original # 5 hit from 1953 (recorded in 1952) -
Making the most of his fairly modest chart success, his charming, folksy personality and business-savvy helped him land his own radio show in Arlington, Virginia, where he performed music and interviewed music stars. Dean turned his successful radio hour into a nationally telecast CBS TV show in 1957. Called "The Jimmy Dean Show", Dean helped give exposure to then-unknown country stars including Patsy Cline and Roy Clark. However, despite recording plenty, further chart success eluded him until, finally in 1961, with his record contract just about to be terminated, he wrote and released 'Big Bad John', a song in which he narrates more than sings about a dangerous but ultimately selflessly brave coal miner who saves his fellow workers during a mine tragedy.
The single hit # 1 and crossed over, spending 5 weeks topping the pop charts, went worldwide, hitting # 2 in the UK, # 1 in Australia, sold several million, earned Dean a Grammy Award and put the singer firmly into the mainstream music business, and not just a TV host. Famed studio pianist Floyd Cramer, who was hired to play piano on the song, instead came up with the idea to use a hammer and a piece of steel instead, which defines the ballad's sound. Here is Jimmy on the Ed Sullivan Show -
"... Somebody said he came from New Orleans / Where he got in a fight over a Cajun Queen
And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand / Sent a Louisiana fellow to the promised land, big John ..."
The B-side of 'Big Bad John' 'I Won't Go Huntin With You Jake' features an overlooked novelty gem of a type which suited Dean's affable, lighthearted persona (he recorded quite a few of these light uptempo ditties). The slideshow features many of the top female country singers from the 1960's and 1980's -
Deciding to cash in on the success of 'Big Bad John', Dean, sticking to his narrative style that had worked so well for him, scored a # 16 hit in 1962 with a sequel song, 'The Cajun Queen'. The basically semi-plausible 'Big Bad John' story of the original is here transformed into the fantastical and mythical. The harmonica, lyrics and delivery style evoke the world of Louisiana swamps, voodoo and even zombies (Big John?) in a somewhat creepy, weird, but very cool (or rubbishy, depending on your taste) way -
Still in 1962, the era when epic ballads such as Johnny Horton's 'Battle of New Orleans' and 'The Bismarck', and Marty Robbin's 'El Paso', 'Big Iron' and 'The Battle of the Alamo' were all big hits, Dean yet again using his now well hone narrative style, reached # 3 (and # 8 on the pop chart) with a homage to the popular young President JFK, recalling his heroism in WW2 when the the boat he commanded, PT 109, was sliced in half by a Japanese destroye. Note the reference to the Australian Coastwatcher witness in the song -
So enough for today - the Jimmy Dean story and his music will conclude tomorrow.
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Back to Jimmy Dean, still riding high after the success of his big crossover hits, 'Big Bad John' and PT-109'. Like 'PT-109', the 1963 song 'Steel Men' commemorates an actual event - the collapse of a steel bridge span while under construction in Vancouver in 1958, killing 18 workers. It was a bigger hit in Canada than the U.S., reaching # 12 -
Dean followed up with a little gem, set to a rollicking train beat, but it's nothing to do with trains, instead offering sage advice of what to do if your woman has plans that don't include you - namely have a black book of ready alternatives to call upon. Simple really (and a black book is still much more secure than a mobile phone which women just love to check out at the first opportunity they get). A # 10 hit in 1963 -
In 1963, after the cancelation of his CBS show, Dean struck a deal with ABC to launch a new variety show — also called "The Jimmy Dean Show". During its three years on the air, The Jimmy Dean Show launched the career of musician Roger Miller, and was also credited with introducing Jim Henson's Muppets to mainstream audiences. In particular, Dean loved the character of Rowlf, a piano-playing canine that often accompanied Dean. During this time, Dean had the opportunity to buy a large stake in what would become a multimillion-dollar Muppets fortune, but the star turned it down for moral reasons, saying that he hadn't "earned it."
In 1965, Dean scored his second (and last) # 1 hit with 'The First Thing Ev'ry Morning'. Now don't get confused when listening to this - it really is Jimmy Dean, not Dean Martin, despite the smooth sound with the backing of the The Chuck Cassey Singers. Jimmy decided it was time to progress to a new sound and was obviously influenced by the relaxed laid back crooning style of Dino - or was it the other way round?; because Martin (I'm avoiding the name "Dean" just here to avoid any confusion) wasted no time in covering this song on his third country music influenced album, "Houston" (at the same time also covering Jimmy's very first 1953 hit 'Bummin Around' as the B-side of the single 'Houston'). This heralds the start of the laidback crooning Jimmy Dean, appealing to an older adult generation than what the Beatles and the Stones were by now competing for -
After Dean's second variety show ended in 1966, Dean became a co-star in several film and TV vehicles, including a role as Daniel Boone's friend in the popular Daniel Boone series (1967–70), and a leading role as a reclusive Las Vegas billionaire Willard Whyte, inspired by Howard Hughes, in the James Bond movie "Diamonds are Forever" (1971), starring Sean Connery. But Dean also continued his music career. In 1966, He signed with RCA Victor and immediately had a top 10 hit with the Chet Atkin's produced 'Stand Beside Me" - a rather stock standard Nashville Sound number. His other major hits during this time included 'Sweet Misery' in 1967, where, instead of Dean Martin, he seems to imitate Frank Sinatra, and then a return to his more natural country Sound in 'A Thing Called Love' in 1968.
Most are more familiar with the 1971 Johnny Cash cover of 'A Thing Called Love', which reached # 2 in the US and was his biggest selling single ever in Europe, but Jerry Reed wrote the song and Jimmy Dean had a # 21 hit in 1968 - with none other than Jerry Reed on guitar. Johnny Cash managed to outsell Dean's original in 1972 with a lavish production featuring the Carter Sisters as back-up singers, Carl Perkins on guitar and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra(!), but here is Dean's 1968 original with Jerry Reed on guitar -
In 1976, Dean achieved another hit with his single 'I.O.U', a tribute to his mother. The song - well actually, it ain't a song, just a straight out narration was released a few weeks before Mother's Day and quickly reached the Top 10. But before you go to the video, heed this warning - I've posted a few songs in this history series that I've described as being "sickly-sweet". Well this one is just straight out sickly, and I was going to skip it altogether until I found this vintage Australian video of it with a familiar (albeit far younger) face, and if you can't stomach the narrated dirge, you can just fast forward to the end for the audience reaction - obviously they were hoping for Sherbet, Skyhooks or similar, anything but this. Funny stuff -
But Dean, a heavy critic of his own performances, believed he was a terrible actor and musician (you may recall here that the obsessive perfectionist Jim Reeves and the insecure, shy reclusive Don Gibson both despised their own great singing abilities) and began pursuing other ventures. In the late 1960s, Dean started a pig butchering company with his brother, Don, in his hometown of Plainview. The brothers ground the meat, while their mother seasoned it. Within 6 months, The Jimmy Dean Meat Co. was already profitable business and by the late '80s, helped by his popular ads, the Deans were making more than $75 million in profits. Dean sold his company to Sara Lee Foods in 1984, but remained its spokesperson, spearheading its iconic ads until 2003.
Thus a whole new American generation grew up knowing of Jimmy Dean the sausage maker on TV, often not knowing of his previous life as a TV host and musician. In 2004, while living in semi-retirement, Dean released his autobiography, "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham". In February 2010, he was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, just 4 months before his death.
Dean resided in Virginia, with his wife, singer/songwriter Donna Meade Dean, until their house was destroyed in a fire. Many of Dean's legendary artifacts, including pieces of Elvis and Henson memorabilia, were burned incinerated. The couple rebuilt their house on their 200-acre estate just shortly before Dean's death in June 2010, at the age of 81. Having suffered health problems in the last few years of his life, he died (ironically given his TV career) while watching TV.
I'll be hitting the road again for another week or a bit, but I'll be back with the history sometime next week (I think), ready to plunge back into the early 1960's.
Dean followed up with a little gem, set to a rollicking train beat, but it's nothing to do with trains, instead offering sage advice of what to do if your woman has plans that don't include you - namely have a black book of ready alternatives to call upon. Simple really (and a black book is still much more secure than a mobile phone which women just love to check out at the first opportunity they get). A # 10 hit in 1963 -
In 1963, after the cancelation of his CBS show, Dean struck a deal with ABC to launch a new variety show — also called "The Jimmy Dean Show". During its three years on the air, The Jimmy Dean Show launched the career of musician Roger Miller, and was also credited with introducing Jim Henson's Muppets to mainstream audiences. In particular, Dean loved the character of Rowlf, a piano-playing canine that often accompanied Dean. During this time, Dean had the opportunity to buy a large stake in what would become a multimillion-dollar Muppets fortune, but the star turned it down for moral reasons, saying that he hadn't "earned it."
In 1965, Dean scored his second (and last) # 1 hit with 'The First Thing Ev'ry Morning'. Now don't get confused when listening to this - it really is Jimmy Dean, not Dean Martin, despite the smooth sound with the backing of the The Chuck Cassey Singers. Jimmy decided it was time to progress to a new sound and was obviously influenced by the relaxed laid back crooning style of Dino - or was it the other way round?; because Martin (I'm avoiding the name "Dean" just here to avoid any confusion) wasted no time in covering this song on his third country music influenced album, "Houston" (at the same time also covering Jimmy's very first 1953 hit 'Bummin Around' as the B-side of the single 'Houston'). This heralds the start of the laidback crooning Jimmy Dean, appealing to an older adult generation than what the Beatles and the Stones were by now competing for -
After Dean's second variety show ended in 1966, Dean became a co-star in several film and TV vehicles, including a role as Daniel Boone's friend in the popular Daniel Boone series (1967–70), and a leading role as a reclusive Las Vegas billionaire Willard Whyte, inspired by Howard Hughes, in the James Bond movie "Diamonds are Forever" (1971), starring Sean Connery. But Dean also continued his music career. In 1966, He signed with RCA Victor and immediately had a top 10 hit with the Chet Atkin's produced 'Stand Beside Me" - a rather stock standard Nashville Sound number. His other major hits during this time included 'Sweet Misery' in 1967, where, instead of Dean Martin, he seems to imitate Frank Sinatra, and then a return to his more natural country Sound in 'A Thing Called Love' in 1968.
Most are more familiar with the 1971 Johnny Cash cover of 'A Thing Called Love', which reached # 2 in the US and was his biggest selling single ever in Europe, but Jerry Reed wrote the song and Jimmy Dean had a # 21 hit in 1968 - with none other than Jerry Reed on guitar. Johnny Cash managed to outsell Dean's original in 1972 with a lavish production featuring the Carter Sisters as back-up singers, Carl Perkins on guitar and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra(!), but here is Dean's 1968 original with Jerry Reed on guitar -
In 1976, Dean achieved another hit with his single 'I.O.U', a tribute to his mother. The song - well actually, it ain't a song, just a straight out narration was released a few weeks before Mother's Day and quickly reached the Top 10. But before you go to the video, heed this warning - I've posted a few songs in this history series that I've described as being "sickly-sweet". Well this one is just straight out sickly, and I was going to skip it altogether until I found this vintage Australian video of it with a familiar (albeit far younger) face, and if you can't stomach the narrated dirge, you can just fast forward to the end for the audience reaction - obviously they were hoping for Sherbet, Skyhooks or similar, anything but this. Funny stuff -
But Dean, a heavy critic of his own performances, believed he was a terrible actor and musician (you may recall here that the obsessive perfectionist Jim Reeves and the insecure, shy reclusive Don Gibson both despised their own great singing abilities) and began pursuing other ventures. In the late 1960s, Dean started a pig butchering company with his brother, Don, in his hometown of Plainview. The brothers ground the meat, while their mother seasoned it. Within 6 months, The Jimmy Dean Meat Co. was already profitable business and by the late '80s, helped by his popular ads, the Deans were making more than $75 million in profits. Dean sold his company to Sara Lee Foods in 1984, but remained its spokesperson, spearheading its iconic ads until 2003.
Thus a whole new American generation grew up knowing of Jimmy Dean the sausage maker on TV, often not knowing of his previous life as a TV host and musician. In 2004, while living in semi-retirement, Dean released his autobiography, "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham". In February 2010, he was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, just 4 months before his death.
Dean resided in Virginia, with his wife, singer/songwriter Donna Meade Dean, until their house was destroyed in a fire. Many of Dean's legendary artifacts, including pieces of Elvis and Henson memorabilia, were burned incinerated. The couple rebuilt their house on their 200-acre estate just shortly before Dean's death in June 2010, at the age of 81. Having suffered health problems in the last few years of his life, he died (ironically given his TV career) while watching TV.
I'll be hitting the road again for another week or a bit, but I'll be back with the history sometime next week (I think), ready to plunge back into the early 1960's.
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Yep - I'm back from my latest travels, continuing the history. As we last saw, Jimmy Dean, apart from his signature song, 'Big Bad John', really made his name as a TV country music show host - but even his exposure paled in comparison to our next artist. While other major stars from Red Foley, Carl Smith and Faron Young to Johnny Cash and George Jones also enjoyed some TV hosting success, none was so long lived, flamboyant (before there was glam rock, he pioneered OTT out-there attire) and succeeded in bringing country music to a mass TV audience, introducing some major new artists along the way. Yet for all his flamboyant appearance, his own music was (with just one strange exception) uncompromisingly traditional country - not country pop, not Nashville Sound and not rock, just straight out "classic country" - occasionally schmaltzy but his best songs were his hard core honky tonk numbers.
Porter Wagoner (a perfect country music name) was born in 1927 on a small farm in the Ozark mountains of Missouri - an area known as "Little Dixie" due to the southern influence of this region, settled as it was by Appalachians. Yet another in our seemingly endless list of poor, depression raised singers (like just about all I've covered to date), he trapped and sold rabbit pelts to scrape together the $8 he needed to buy his first guitar. He spent hours pretending that the stump of a felled oak tree was the Opry stage and that he was introducing country stars. He quit school at age 12 to work the farm due to his father's ill health.
After bad times forced the family to auction off their farm, they moved to West Plains, where a local butcher hired Wagoner. When the butcher heard him play the guitar, he put him on the radio to sing advertisements. He formed a
band, "The Blue Ridge Boys", playing the mountain music (or bluegrass) style then popular around the Ozarks. On a
trip to Nashville, Wagoner witnessed Hank Williams's historic 1949 debut appearance at the Grand Ole Opry and was
so impressed by both Williams's swaggering honky-tonk music and the 7 encores it generated, he reinvented himself in Williams's image.
Wagoner was hired to appear on popular Springfield radio station in Springfield in 1951, and this led to him being signed by RCA Victor in 1952. His early records sold poorly, but constant touring and radio performances honed him into a slick entertainer. In 1953 Wagoner spent $350 to buy his first Nudie suit, as the extravagant rhinestone-studded creations by Nudie Cohn were called. Wagoner ultimately owned 50 of them, paying $8,000 to $12,000 each, and epitomized the style country fans call “hillbilly deluxe.” He enjoyed his first country music hit in 1954 with 'Company's Comin'. What I like about this song is that it betrays Wagoner's rural Ozark roots, with it's "mountain beat", fiddle solo and simple, yet authentic, theme about the excitement of spying visitors coming to their isolated Ozark farm - and what song today
would have lyrics like this?! - "... We'll run out to the henhouse and wring a neck or two ..." -
Wagoner topped the country charts in 1955 with 'A Satisfied Mind'. His first # 1 hit, with its dose of truth, helped introduce a future standard to not just country music but also pop and the folk revival. It later became a title track
of a Glen Campbell album and cover material for the likes of Joan Baez, the Byrds, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. This
live video shows both the song and one of his customary Nudie suits -
"... Money can't buy back / Your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely / Or a love that's grown cold ..."
Wagoners glittering and twinkling outfits, and blonde pompadour hairstyle, once led someone to remark it was the first time they were aware a Christmas tree could sing (he and Hank Snow were two of the few artists to retain this type of dress, when most others were adopting more conservative styles - although Snow had more dress sense). When RCA suggested that he record some rock ‘n’ roll tracks to keep abreast of the current trend, he refused, stating, "It just didn’t suit my personality. I couldn’t sing the songs". Following further Top 10 country hits in 1957 he became a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1960, Wagoner was given a TV series sponsored by the Chattanooga Medicine Company. Whatever their reason for choosing the lanky Wagoner (he had become known as the "Thin Man From West Plains") to host the show evades me, as there were bigger names at the time, but it was certainly an inspired choice. Initially carried by 18 stations, it became so popular that by the end of the 60s, it was networked to 86 and, soon afterwards, to over 100 stations. The show, which featured Wagoner and his band the Wagonmasters, also acted as a shop window for new and established stars.
Written by Jerry Reed, Misery Loves Company # 1 in 1961 Wagoner’s second chart-topper came from the pen of future Nashville (and later still, movie star) Jerry Reed. While prior picks crossed pop barriers, this song about drinking to forget heartbreak was destined to remain a classic sad country song -
"... So break out the bottle bring on the crowd / Tell funny stories turn the jukebox up loud /
Come on sit at my table where the drinks are on me / Just gather round me 'cause misery loves company ..." -
Wagoner and songwriter Bill Anderson made a great team. In this instance, Wagoner brings almost a crooner-like vocal quality to this Anderson-penned blend of a love song and a smart-aleck retort, with the immortal line: "... There's so much more between us than this table..." A # 7 hit in 1962 -
This unlikely pick 'Sorrow On The Rocks' was the B-side to the equally great 'The Life of the Party', but charted to # 5 in 1964. This upbeat drinking song was penned by Tony Moon, the longtime music director for Brenda Lee and the writer of the Beatles deep cut 'Soldier of Love' -
"... The music on the jukebox don't mean a thing / 'Cause I'm too far gone for a song /
I sure feel bad cause my baby ain't here and / I'm sorry that I done her wrong ..."
'The Life Of The Party', another heartbreaker from 1964 strangely wasn't a hit but don't tell me this straight out honky tonk number ain't classic country -
"... I fill up their glasses make them all feel at home / I’m the life of the party till the last one is gone /
That’s the time that I’m dreading when they’ve all said goodbye / Then the life of the party will break down and cry ..."
Stay tuned for more on Porter Wagoner tomorrow.
Porter Wagoner (a perfect country music name) was born in 1927 on a small farm in the Ozark mountains of Missouri - an area known as "Little Dixie" due to the southern influence of this region, settled as it was by Appalachians. Yet another in our seemingly endless list of poor, depression raised singers (like just about all I've covered to date), he trapped and sold rabbit pelts to scrape together the $8 he needed to buy his first guitar. He spent hours pretending that the stump of a felled oak tree was the Opry stage and that he was introducing country stars. He quit school at age 12 to work the farm due to his father's ill health.
After bad times forced the family to auction off their farm, they moved to West Plains, where a local butcher hired Wagoner. When the butcher heard him play the guitar, he put him on the radio to sing advertisements. He formed a
band, "The Blue Ridge Boys", playing the mountain music (or bluegrass) style then popular around the Ozarks. On a
trip to Nashville, Wagoner witnessed Hank Williams's historic 1949 debut appearance at the Grand Ole Opry and was
so impressed by both Williams's swaggering honky-tonk music and the 7 encores it generated, he reinvented himself in Williams's image.
Wagoner was hired to appear on popular Springfield radio station in Springfield in 1951, and this led to him being signed by RCA Victor in 1952. His early records sold poorly, but constant touring and radio performances honed him into a slick entertainer. In 1953 Wagoner spent $350 to buy his first Nudie suit, as the extravagant rhinestone-studded creations by Nudie Cohn were called. Wagoner ultimately owned 50 of them, paying $8,000 to $12,000 each, and epitomized the style country fans call “hillbilly deluxe.” He enjoyed his first country music hit in 1954 with 'Company's Comin'. What I like about this song is that it betrays Wagoner's rural Ozark roots, with it's "mountain beat", fiddle solo and simple, yet authentic, theme about the excitement of spying visitors coming to their isolated Ozark farm - and what song today
would have lyrics like this?! - "... We'll run out to the henhouse and wring a neck or two ..." -
Wagoner topped the country charts in 1955 with 'A Satisfied Mind'. His first # 1 hit, with its dose of truth, helped introduce a future standard to not just country music but also pop and the folk revival. It later became a title track
of a Glen Campbell album and cover material for the likes of Joan Baez, the Byrds, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. This
live video shows both the song and one of his customary Nudie suits -
"... Money can't buy back / Your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely / Or a love that's grown cold ..."
Wagoners glittering and twinkling outfits, and blonde pompadour hairstyle, once led someone to remark it was the first time they were aware a Christmas tree could sing (he and Hank Snow were two of the few artists to retain this type of dress, when most others were adopting more conservative styles - although Snow had more dress sense). When RCA suggested that he record some rock ‘n’ roll tracks to keep abreast of the current trend, he refused, stating, "It just didn’t suit my personality. I couldn’t sing the songs". Following further Top 10 country hits in 1957 he became a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry.
In 1960, Wagoner was given a TV series sponsored by the Chattanooga Medicine Company. Whatever their reason for choosing the lanky Wagoner (he had become known as the "Thin Man From West Plains") to host the show evades me, as there were bigger names at the time, but it was certainly an inspired choice. Initially carried by 18 stations, it became so popular that by the end of the 60s, it was networked to 86 and, soon afterwards, to over 100 stations. The show, which featured Wagoner and his band the Wagonmasters, also acted as a shop window for new and established stars.
Written by Jerry Reed, Misery Loves Company # 1 in 1961 Wagoner’s second chart-topper came from the pen of future Nashville (and later still, movie star) Jerry Reed. While prior picks crossed pop barriers, this song about drinking to forget heartbreak was destined to remain a classic sad country song -
"... So break out the bottle bring on the crowd / Tell funny stories turn the jukebox up loud /
Come on sit at my table where the drinks are on me / Just gather round me 'cause misery loves company ..." -
Wagoner and songwriter Bill Anderson made a great team. In this instance, Wagoner brings almost a crooner-like vocal quality to this Anderson-penned blend of a love song and a smart-aleck retort, with the immortal line: "... There's so much more between us than this table..." A # 7 hit in 1962 -
This unlikely pick 'Sorrow On The Rocks' was the B-side to the equally great 'The Life of the Party', but charted to # 5 in 1964. This upbeat drinking song was penned by Tony Moon, the longtime music director for Brenda Lee and the writer of the Beatles deep cut 'Soldier of Love' -
"... The music on the jukebox don't mean a thing / 'Cause I'm too far gone for a song /
I sure feel bad cause my baby ain't here and / I'm sorry that I done her wrong ..."
'The Life Of The Party', another heartbreaker from 1964 strangely wasn't a hit but don't tell me this straight out honky tonk number ain't classic country -
"... I fill up their glasses make them all feel at home / I’m the life of the party till the last one is gone /
That’s the time that I’m dreading when they’ve all said goodbye / Then the life of the party will break down and cry ..."
Stay tuned for more on Porter Wagoner tomorrow.
Few country stars in the 1950s sounded or looked cooler than Porter Wagoner. But “The Wagonmaster” stuck with his blond pompadour, flashy Nudie suits and distinct honky-tonk sound in the 1960s as the business changed around him, and many derided him as old-fashioned. But staying the course and steadfastly remaining true to himself eventually earned Wagoner respect and esteem amongst fellow musicians. Waylon Jennings once said, “He couldn’t go pop with a mouthful of firecrackers.” After his own very long lived TV show eventually ended in 1981 after 21 years, he earned an honoured spot as the heir to Roy Acuff of being the main host, heart and chief voice of the Grand Ole Opry.
Wagoner made this often-covered tragic song a # 4 hit in 1965. It quickly entered others' country repertories, including the songbooks of Elvis Presley, Bobby Bare and Jerry Lee Lewis, before transcending genre classification with pop idol, Tom Jones. But here's the original of the great country standard, 'Green, Green Grass of Home', where the singer paints a beautiful picture of his arrival back home (from prison) - only to awake from his dream, still in his cell on the morning of his execution, his homecoming to be tragically different from his dream -
A Great Depression-era lyrical trope about downtrodden vagrants (exemplified by Hank Williams' definitive cover of the country-gospel standard 'The Tramp on the Street'), 'Skid Row Joe' provided Wagoner with both a definitive # 3 hit in 1965 and an on-stage TV alter ego.
It’s hard to imagine a better singer for this textbook example of Bill Anderson’s narrative-based, reality-driven songwriting than the 1967 # 2 'The Cold Hard Facts Of Life'. It's story of betrayal and murder, with a brilliant ending (that would be "cancelled" now) which also inspired the best of Wagoner’s iconic and less than subtle album covers -
It don't get more country than this ballad. Wagoner was so traditional in the days of Nashville Sound studio trickery that he successfully brought back the classic folk disaster song in the 1969 # 2 hit, 'The Carroll County Accident'. Songwriter Bob Ferguson (Ferlin Husky's gospel classic 'Wings of a Dove - see post # 364) even throws in a swerve at the end about the narrator’s tie to the deceased driver -
In yesterday's introduction, I wrote that Porter Wagoner remained steadfastedly traditional - with one strange exception. Well here's the exception. You need to hear the most bizarre single by any Country Music Hall of Famer to wrap your head around its existence. The legendary guitarist and RCA record producer Chet Atkins, encouraged the singer's dark side. In 2007, Wagoner recalled - "When I wrote The Rubber Room, he (Atkins) just flipped out. He said, 'Country people won't like it, but there'll be a rock group doing that one day, and it'll be a giant song. There's a great market for that kind of stuff. If you don't have a market here, believe me, there will be one day.' And here we are. We've arrived."
Unlike so many of our other big country stars, Wagoner wasn't known for drinking or pill popping, but had several long periods when he did not record or tour, sometimes explaining that there was little good material available. The lyrics in at least two of his songs came from spending time in a Nashville mental hospital. One, 'Committed to Parkview' was written by Johnny Cash about a Nashville institution in which both men had stayed. This song is part of an album "The Rubber Room: The Haunting Poetic Songs of Porter Wagoner, 1966-1977". Wagoner's interpretation of a mental breakdown tops the unease chased by many of the prior decade’s proto-punks and garage rockers -
During the 70s, when many of RCA’s main artists were recording material of a crossover nature, Wagoner continued rigidly with his strict country music. He still managed some chart solo hits, albeit of a more minor nature, and scored
his 80th charted hit in 1983 with the song 'Turn This Pencil Over' from the Clint Eastwood film "Honkytonk Man". Shrewd with his earnings, Wagoner was now a wealthy man, and from 1984 on he concentrated more on his business interests. However, the lure of the bright lights kept him appearing constantly at the Grand Ole Opry (still in his now iconic Nudie rhinestone suits), where he clowned and sang truncated medleys of his hits as well as being its chief host and spokesperson.
But before I'm finished with Porter Wagoner, there's one more very important part of his story to tell, which, of course, I will - tomorrow.
Wagoner made this often-covered tragic song a # 4 hit in 1965. It quickly entered others' country repertories, including the songbooks of Elvis Presley, Bobby Bare and Jerry Lee Lewis, before transcending genre classification with pop idol, Tom Jones. But here's the original of the great country standard, 'Green, Green Grass of Home', where the singer paints a beautiful picture of his arrival back home (from prison) - only to awake from his dream, still in his cell on the morning of his execution, his homecoming to be tragically different from his dream -
A Great Depression-era lyrical trope about downtrodden vagrants (exemplified by Hank Williams' definitive cover of the country-gospel standard 'The Tramp on the Street'), 'Skid Row Joe' provided Wagoner with both a definitive # 3 hit in 1965 and an on-stage TV alter ego.
It’s hard to imagine a better singer for this textbook example of Bill Anderson’s narrative-based, reality-driven songwriting than the 1967 # 2 'The Cold Hard Facts Of Life'. It's story of betrayal and murder, with a brilliant ending (that would be "cancelled" now) which also inspired the best of Wagoner’s iconic and less than subtle album covers -
It don't get more country than this ballad. Wagoner was so traditional in the days of Nashville Sound studio trickery that he successfully brought back the classic folk disaster song in the 1969 # 2 hit, 'The Carroll County Accident'. Songwriter Bob Ferguson (Ferlin Husky's gospel classic 'Wings of a Dove - see post # 364) even throws in a swerve at the end about the narrator’s tie to the deceased driver -
In yesterday's introduction, I wrote that Porter Wagoner remained steadfastedly traditional - with one strange exception. Well here's the exception. You need to hear the most bizarre single by any Country Music Hall of Famer to wrap your head around its existence. The legendary guitarist and RCA record producer Chet Atkins, encouraged the singer's dark side. In 2007, Wagoner recalled - "When I wrote The Rubber Room, he (Atkins) just flipped out. He said, 'Country people won't like it, but there'll be a rock group doing that one day, and it'll be a giant song. There's a great market for that kind of stuff. If you don't have a market here, believe me, there will be one day.' And here we are. We've arrived."
Unlike so many of our other big country stars, Wagoner wasn't known for drinking or pill popping, but had several long periods when he did not record or tour, sometimes explaining that there was little good material available. The lyrics in at least two of his songs came from spending time in a Nashville mental hospital. One, 'Committed to Parkview' was written by Johnny Cash about a Nashville institution in which both men had stayed. This song is part of an album "The Rubber Room: The Haunting Poetic Songs of Porter Wagoner, 1966-1977". Wagoner's interpretation of a mental breakdown tops the unease chased by many of the prior decade’s proto-punks and garage rockers -
During the 70s, when many of RCA’s main artists were recording material of a crossover nature, Wagoner continued rigidly with his strict country music. He still managed some chart solo hits, albeit of a more minor nature, and scored
his 80th charted hit in 1983 with the song 'Turn This Pencil Over' from the Clint Eastwood film "Honkytonk Man". Shrewd with his earnings, Wagoner was now a wealthy man, and from 1984 on he concentrated more on his business interests. However, the lure of the bright lights kept him appearing constantly at the Grand Ole Opry (still in his now iconic Nudie rhinestone suits), where he clowned and sang truncated medleys of his hits as well as being its chief host and spokesperson.
But before I'm finished with Porter Wagoner, there's one more very important part of his story to tell, which, of course, I will - tomorrow.
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Porter Wagoner was a workaholic, and alongside his popular weekly TV show, The Porter Wagoner Show and frequent Grand Ole Opry appearances, he performed over 200 concerts a year. His career covered more than 50 years and his achievements are legion, yet he will forever be associated with hiring a largely unknown young woman, small in stature but with a very big voice amongst other attributes, as his new TV singing partner. The female singer Norma Jean (not
to be confused with Norma Jeane Baker aka Marilyn Monroe) worked as Wagoner's TV foil until 1967 when she retired to raise a family. Wagoner auditioned dozens of young women for her role, finally settling on a singer from the Appalachian hills of East Tennessee who had enjoyed a minor hit called 'Dumb Blonde'. Her name was Dolly Parton and for the next 7 years Dolly and Wagoner were among Nashville's biggest stars - his TV series syndicated to over a 100 stations, attracting on average 3.5 million viewers weekly - while their hits remain among the very finest male-female country duets.
One of the most well-loved as well as the most well-known duo in country music history, Wagoner and Dolly released 13 albums together over the course of 13 years. The country icons released dozens of beloved singles, ranging from upbeat love songs to heartbreaking ballads. The quality of Wagoner’s duets with Dolly Parton are possibly the finest by any duo in country music. While Parton went on to international superstardom and is now America's greatest living singer, Wagoner's own star gradually waned and he had to remain content with being the Grand Ole Opry's main host and most enduring entertainer. Anyway, time for their music.
Originally written and recorded by Tom Paxton in 1964, based on the traditional lament folk song 'The Leaving of Liverpool' and recorded by dozens since, becoming another country music standard, 'The Last Thing on My Mind' was
the very first duet that Wagoner and Parton released together. Put out as a single in 1967, it hit # 6 on the charts and established what would become one of country music's most beloved duos. I chose a live version from Wagoner's TV show, in which Wagoner is introduced as "the star" (well, it was his TV show), but a very young Dolly hasn't yet got
that billing (she very soon did, of course). We also see "The Wagonmasters" band and backing singers in action -
The title track of Wagoner and Parton’s first collaborative album in 1968, 'Just Between You and Me' wasn't released as a single, but it exemplifies so many of the era’s bright spots. Beyond a strong vocal performance by both stars, you get a song written by Cowboy Jack Clement and a high quality crew of backing musicians highlighted by Pete Drake’s pedal
steel guitar mastery -
Also by Jack Clement, 'Just Someone I Used to Know' reached # 5 in 1969 and appeared on Parton and Wagoner's 1970 album "Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca". It was the fourth release from duo who had, by then, become a household name, but lyrics such as “... When they ask who’s in the picture, I say, ‘Just someone I used to know...” served as sad foreshadowing when, in 1974, Wagoner and Parton parted ways acrimoniously -
In 1974, even as their professional and personal relationship was falling apart, mainly due to Wagoner's controlling behaviour and jealousy of Dolly's rising stardom while his own declined, 'Please Don't Stop Loving Me' gave Wagoner
and Parton their only # 1 hit as a duet with its upbeat melody and honest lyrics -
"You're my inspiration, my purpose in life / When things go all wrong, you make them all right," sings Wagoner in one verse. "I would be useless if you ever leave / So please, oh please don't stop loving me." Desperate love never sounded so good! -
Parton, feeling constrained by Wagoner's possessive controlling nature to her, left to concentrate on her already very successful solo career in 1974, where she quickly established cross-over superstardom status. But Dolly expressed
her feelings for Wagoner in her international hit song 'I Will Always Love You' - but this didn't stop Wagoner launching several lawsuits against her. Some 6 years later they re-established their friendship, yet as she became a pop icon he found himself more and more a man out of time.
The lawsuits and countersuits between the two in a 6 year legal tangle over business interests that produced not a few tabloid headlines. One reported that Wagoner’s wife had found him and Dolly in bed and had shot at both. “There wasn’t nothing to that,” Wagoner told The Tennessean in 2000 (“with a wink,” the newspaper said). “She didn’t even hit Dolly".
'Making Plans' appears on Wagoner and Parton's final album of duets, "Porter & Dolly", released in 1980. The simple yet stunning track illustrates the heartache of breaking up so beautifully that it's no surprise 'Making Plans' gave Wagoner and Parton one of their biggest hits, reaching # 2. Parton went on to re-record the song with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris for their award-winning 1987 album "Trio" -
By now known as Mr Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954 to 1983, including 29 top 10's. He was elected to the Country Music HoF in 2002 (3 years after Dolly). Until his illness and death, Wagoner appeared regularly
on the Grand Ole Opry and still toured actively. He died from lung cancer in Nashville in 2007, at age 80 and his funeral was held at the Grand Ole Opry House. Dolly visited and spoke with Porter just 2-3 hours before he passed away and performed a concert at her theme park, Dollywood, in his memory after his death.
For all Wagoner’s accomplishments, he could not escape a certain question. “Did you sing with Dolly?” too many people asked. “No,” he would say with a smile. “She sang with me.”
I'm on the road again for the next few days, but should be back sometime next week with a once popular, but now obscure, smooth Nashville Sound singer.
to be confused with Norma Jeane Baker aka Marilyn Monroe) worked as Wagoner's TV foil until 1967 when she retired to raise a family. Wagoner auditioned dozens of young women for her role, finally settling on a singer from the Appalachian hills of East Tennessee who had enjoyed a minor hit called 'Dumb Blonde'. Her name was Dolly Parton and for the next 7 years Dolly and Wagoner were among Nashville's biggest stars - his TV series syndicated to over a 100 stations, attracting on average 3.5 million viewers weekly - while their hits remain among the very finest male-female country duets.
One of the most well-loved as well as the most well-known duo in country music history, Wagoner and Dolly released 13 albums together over the course of 13 years. The country icons released dozens of beloved singles, ranging from upbeat love songs to heartbreaking ballads. The quality of Wagoner’s duets with Dolly Parton are possibly the finest by any duo in country music. While Parton went on to international superstardom and is now America's greatest living singer, Wagoner's own star gradually waned and he had to remain content with being the Grand Ole Opry's main host and most enduring entertainer. Anyway, time for their music.
Originally written and recorded by Tom Paxton in 1964, based on the traditional lament folk song 'The Leaving of Liverpool' and recorded by dozens since, becoming another country music standard, 'The Last Thing on My Mind' was
the very first duet that Wagoner and Parton released together. Put out as a single in 1967, it hit # 6 on the charts and established what would become one of country music's most beloved duos. I chose a live version from Wagoner's TV show, in which Wagoner is introduced as "the star" (well, it was his TV show), but a very young Dolly hasn't yet got
that billing (she very soon did, of course). We also see "The Wagonmasters" band and backing singers in action -
The title track of Wagoner and Parton’s first collaborative album in 1968, 'Just Between You and Me' wasn't released as a single, but it exemplifies so many of the era’s bright spots. Beyond a strong vocal performance by both stars, you get a song written by Cowboy Jack Clement and a high quality crew of backing musicians highlighted by Pete Drake’s pedal
steel guitar mastery -
Also by Jack Clement, 'Just Someone I Used to Know' reached # 5 in 1969 and appeared on Parton and Wagoner's 1970 album "Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca". It was the fourth release from duo who had, by then, become a household name, but lyrics such as “... When they ask who’s in the picture, I say, ‘Just someone I used to know...” served as sad foreshadowing when, in 1974, Wagoner and Parton parted ways acrimoniously -
In 1974, even as their professional and personal relationship was falling apart, mainly due to Wagoner's controlling behaviour and jealousy of Dolly's rising stardom while his own declined, 'Please Don't Stop Loving Me' gave Wagoner
and Parton their only # 1 hit as a duet with its upbeat melody and honest lyrics -
"You're my inspiration, my purpose in life / When things go all wrong, you make them all right," sings Wagoner in one verse. "I would be useless if you ever leave / So please, oh please don't stop loving me." Desperate love never sounded so good! -
Parton, feeling constrained by Wagoner's possessive controlling nature to her, left to concentrate on her already very successful solo career in 1974, where she quickly established cross-over superstardom status. But Dolly expressed
her feelings for Wagoner in her international hit song 'I Will Always Love You' - but this didn't stop Wagoner launching several lawsuits against her. Some 6 years later they re-established their friendship, yet as she became a pop icon he found himself more and more a man out of time.
The lawsuits and countersuits between the two in a 6 year legal tangle over business interests that produced not a few tabloid headlines. One reported that Wagoner’s wife had found him and Dolly in bed and had shot at both. “There wasn’t nothing to that,” Wagoner told The Tennessean in 2000 (“with a wink,” the newspaper said). “She didn’t even hit Dolly".
'Making Plans' appears on Wagoner and Parton's final album of duets, "Porter & Dolly", released in 1980. The simple yet stunning track illustrates the heartache of breaking up so beautifully that it's no surprise 'Making Plans' gave Wagoner and Parton one of their biggest hits, reaching # 2. Parton went on to re-record the song with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris for their award-winning 1987 album "Trio" -
By now known as Mr Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954 to 1983, including 29 top 10's. He was elected to the Country Music HoF in 2002 (3 years after Dolly). Until his illness and death, Wagoner appeared regularly
on the Grand Ole Opry and still toured actively. He died from lung cancer in Nashville in 2007, at age 80 and his funeral was held at the Grand Ole Opry House. Dolly visited and spoke with Porter just 2-3 hours before he passed away and performed a concert at her theme park, Dollywood, in his memory after his death.
For all Wagoner’s accomplishments, he could not escape a certain question. “Did you sing with Dolly?” too many people asked. “No,” he would say with a smile. “She sang with me.”
I'm on the road again for the next few days, but should be back sometime next week with a once popular, but now obscure, smooth Nashville Sound singer.
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I'm back again, if only for a couple of days, just enough to squeeze in some more history. Our next artist was still a southerner, but compared to nearly all the ones covered to date, he was unusual in that he wasn't raised in poverty nor did he have a rural background. He was one of country music's better vocalists, with a smooth, velvety laid back style,
not unlike Eddy Arnold or Jim Reeves, ideal for the then in vogue Nashville Sound and was, very unusually, inducted
into the Grand Ole Opry before he had a single hit of his own - though the hits soon followed.
Roy Drusky was born in 1930 in Atlanta. His mother was a Baptist church organist and encouraged him to do something
in music, but although he sang in the church choir as a boy, he aspired to be a baseball player and pursued that interest during his teenage years. In 1948, like many others around that time (e.g. Marty Robbins) he joined the navy. Some of his mother’s influence must have been felt - a country band on his ship gave him an interest in music, and when next
on shore leave he bought a guitar and taught himself to play and practiced his singing. But he wasn’t quite finished with baseball - after completing his service in the Navy he tried out for the Cleveland Indians in 1951, but was unsuccessful.
Now finished with baseball, Drusky studied to be a vet and to pay for the course, he formed a country band called the Southern Ranch Boys. His first success was when he and his group won a radio talent show in Decatur, Georgia. This
led to a job as a DJ and in Decatur with a regional following, the resident singer in a local club and appeared regularly
on Atlanta TV. He abandoned his university studies, left his ban, continued to sing in area nightclubs and following the 1953 success of one of his recordings, 'Such a Fool', signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1955.
After his success in Decatur, Drusky moved to Minneapolis, still working as a DJ and became a headliner at the famous Flame Club. He also started writing songs and Faron Young (see posts 261-266) had big hits # 1 hits with 2 of Drusky's compositions, 'Alone With You' and 'Country Girl'. In 1958, Faron Young's support and influence led to Drusky becoming
a member of the Grand Ole Opry, despite having no hit recordings of his own. He moved to Nashville, signed for Decca Records and between 1960 and 1962 had a string of top 5 country hits with his own compositions.
Drusky's self-penned breakthrough hit, 'Another (Just Like Me)' reached # 2 in 1960 - and was unlucky not to get to # 1, being held out only by Jim Reeves biggest ever classic 'He'll Have To Go'. Of all the country singers, Drusky's voice and style was probably the most alike to Reeves -
'Anymore', a # 3 follow-up hit in 1960 is, IMO, Drusky's best song and pedal steel guitar legend, Pete Drake, is part of
the reason as well, giving it what's now called a "classic country" sound. This was Drakes first Nashville recording and
his innovative pedal steel style was new and fresh at that time -
A full on "Nashville Sound" production aimed at a crossover audience, with Millie Kirkham providing the background soprano, 'Three Hearts In A Tangle' reached # 2 in 1961 and also became Drusky's only top 40 pop charted hit. Ironically, it was blocked from reaching #1 for those 4 weeks by the Willie Nelson penned 'Hello Walls' by Drusky's early promoter Faron Young.
The song itself is one of those many country songs that describes a real life situation - one I found myself in many years back, still a teenager, when I carelessly acquired two girlfriends - but in my case, before I got to choose, it was taken out of my hands - they were both informed by small town talk of the situation, thus I found myself promptly dumped by both - I got my just desserts! But here the crooning Drusky agonises over which to choose - not always an easy choice -
'Second Hand Rose', written by Howard Harland was a # 3 hit for the smooth, velvet voiced Drusky, in 1962. -
Written by Bill Anderson, 'Peel Me A Nanna' reached # 8 in 1964. Basically, I've included this for the laughs - not the type of song or lyrics you hear now -
I'll be back tomorrow (I think) to farewell Drusky - but not before he finally cracks the elusive # 1 (having come very close several times), before his crooning style faded from popularity as the sixties moved on into the seventies
not unlike Eddy Arnold or Jim Reeves, ideal for the then in vogue Nashville Sound and was, very unusually, inducted
into the Grand Ole Opry before he had a single hit of his own - though the hits soon followed.
Roy Drusky was born in 1930 in Atlanta. His mother was a Baptist church organist and encouraged him to do something
in music, but although he sang in the church choir as a boy, he aspired to be a baseball player and pursued that interest during his teenage years. In 1948, like many others around that time (e.g. Marty Robbins) he joined the navy. Some of his mother’s influence must have been felt - a country band on his ship gave him an interest in music, and when next
on shore leave he bought a guitar and taught himself to play and practiced his singing. But he wasn’t quite finished with baseball - after completing his service in the Navy he tried out for the Cleveland Indians in 1951, but was unsuccessful.
Now finished with baseball, Drusky studied to be a vet and to pay for the course, he formed a country band called the Southern Ranch Boys. His first success was when he and his group won a radio talent show in Decatur, Georgia. This
led to a job as a DJ and in Decatur with a regional following, the resident singer in a local club and appeared regularly
on Atlanta TV. He abandoned his university studies, left his ban, continued to sing in area nightclubs and following the 1953 success of one of his recordings, 'Such a Fool', signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1955.
After his success in Decatur, Drusky moved to Minneapolis, still working as a DJ and became a headliner at the famous Flame Club. He also started writing songs and Faron Young (see posts 261-266) had big hits # 1 hits with 2 of Drusky's compositions, 'Alone With You' and 'Country Girl'. In 1958, Faron Young's support and influence led to Drusky becoming
a member of the Grand Ole Opry, despite having no hit recordings of his own. He moved to Nashville, signed for Decca Records and between 1960 and 1962 had a string of top 5 country hits with his own compositions.
Drusky's self-penned breakthrough hit, 'Another (Just Like Me)' reached # 2 in 1960 - and was unlucky not to get to # 1, being held out only by Jim Reeves biggest ever classic 'He'll Have To Go'. Of all the country singers, Drusky's voice and style was probably the most alike to Reeves -
'Anymore', a # 3 follow-up hit in 1960 is, IMO, Drusky's best song and pedal steel guitar legend, Pete Drake, is part of
the reason as well, giving it what's now called a "classic country" sound. This was Drakes first Nashville recording and
his innovative pedal steel style was new and fresh at that time -
A full on "Nashville Sound" production aimed at a crossover audience, with Millie Kirkham providing the background soprano, 'Three Hearts In A Tangle' reached # 2 in 1961 and also became Drusky's only top 40 pop charted hit. Ironically, it was blocked from reaching #1 for those 4 weeks by the Willie Nelson penned 'Hello Walls' by Drusky's early promoter Faron Young.
The song itself is one of those many country songs that describes a real life situation - one I found myself in many years back, still a teenager, when I carelessly acquired two girlfriends - but in my case, before I got to choose, it was taken out of my hands - they were both informed by small town talk of the situation, thus I found myself promptly dumped by both - I got my just desserts! But here the crooning Drusky agonises over which to choose - not always an easy choice -
'Second Hand Rose', written by Howard Harland was a # 3 hit for the smooth, velvet voiced Drusky, in 1962. -
Written by Bill Anderson, 'Peel Me A Nanna' reached # 8 in 1964. Basically, I've included this for the laughs - not the type of song or lyrics you hear now -
I'll be back tomorrow (I think) to farewell Drusky - but not before he finally cracks the elusive # 1 (having come very close several times), before his crooning style faded from popularity as the sixties moved on into the seventies
In contrast to Porter Wagoner, who always stayed traditional country, Roy Drusky, with Owen Bradley as his producer, was often given the dubious title "the Perry Como of country music" (Perry Como being a popular singer famous for his laid-back, relaxed (though some said boring) crooning style. This title probably didn't help Drusky in the long term but he at least enjoyed success throughout the 1960's as a performer in the Nashville Sound style, though he never quite fulfilled the expectations of succeeding Jim Reeves as the premier Nashville Sound exponent after Reeves' tragic death in 1964 - always financially comfortable and happily married, he never seemed to quite have the ambition, drive or right material
to rank amongst the the greats.
Though Drusky got his first big break through Faron Young recording and making # 1 hits of 2 of Drusky's songs, and
in gratitude, used his influence to get Drusky inducted into the Grand Ole Opry (as outlined yesterday), they didn't stay close - Faron was a hard living, hard drinking extrovert who led the "Nashville brat pack", but, in contrast, Drusky married a no-nonsense religious woman who steered him away from the party and sin scene to the much less colourful life of sobriety. Drusky's career peaked around 1965 when he finally achieved a # 1 hit (after previously coming so close with multiple top 5 hits) albeit as half of a duo, and he then appeared in 3 country music movies - "White Lightning Express", "Forty Acre Feud" and "Golden Guitar".
Down in the Valley' (aka 'Birmingham Jail') is a traditional folk song from the 1920's (though the melody is believed to be centuries old) recorded by many artists, most notably by Lead Belly and Burl Ives. Though Drusky never released this as a single, but only from his 1964 album "Songs of the Cities" (an ironic title for a country music LP), it's now about the most popular example of his voice and laid back "Perry Como" style -
Written by songwriter, Liz Anderson, 'All My Friends Are Gonna Be Stranger' is now best remembered as the first top 10 breakthrough hit for the then little known singer, Merle Haggard. After the track was cut and the single printed, Haggard learned Drusky had also just recorded and was releasing it. Although both Drusky and Haggard versions eventually made it into the top 10 simultaneously, Haggard reaching # 10 but the better known Drusky topping that at # 6 in 1964, the competing singles undoubtedly prevented either version for being a top 5 and perhaps denied Drusky from achieving a
# 1 hit (yet again).
The song itself is about typical country music themes of love and betrayal, with the narrator embittered by a deceitful lover, not only vowing to be through with love but to no longer trust anyone at all - not even his friends -
After coming so close so many times, Drusky finally achieved a # 1 hit with a cleverly written song he wrote of love (or lust?), cheating and deception all in one - but he had to be content with sharing the # 1 honours with duo partner, Priscilla Mitchell (at least he got to pocket all the song-writing royalties). Born in 1941, Mitchell was a teenage rock'n'roll singer with a superb voice, becoming a backing singer for NRC Records. However her only real popular success was when she cut a string of duet hits with Drusky, their best-selling recordings being "cheating songs", including their biggest hit together, 'Yes, Mr. Peters', # 1 in 1965 (ironically, both only married once for life and were never involved in any real life scandal, despite all the scandal in their songs). Priscilla Mitchell was married to country singer, songwriter, actor, and great guitarist Jerry Reed from 1959 until his death in 2008. After her brief time in the limelight, which wasn't to her taste, she was happy to retire to raise her daughters while hubby Jerry went on to fame.
Cheating songs are (or at least used to be) a staple of country music, back when country music was actually country and reflected real life. Some cheating songs were subtle, some more open but this has to be the most blatant of 'em all (I'll assume you'll quickly figure out why the male (Drusky) continuously says "Mr Peters") -
The next number is included as it's the very first hit written by a struggling songwriter who was working at a record studio janitor when he first heard his compositions on the air - he had the unusual name of Kris Kristofferson. Despite it being Kristofferson's very first success as a song-writer, its subtle lyrics already show his unmistakable writing style, with the lyrics being whimsical but with an underlying sadness. This only reached # 24 in 1968 (but # 9 in Canada), with Drusky's mellow sound fading from the forever fickle current fashion. The song deserved better -
Drusky had his most successful record in several years with the 1970 road song 'Long Long Texas Road' a top 5 hit (his last top 5). Actually it's not really a road song at all but a song of yearning and reminiscing -
"... Now I yearn for childhood days of model planes and lemonade /
When the day stretched out before me like a long long Texas road ..." -
After 1970, the hits started to dry up for Drusky, though he continued to chart until 1977, even introducing Elton John to country record-buyers with a cover version of 'Dixie Lily' in 1974. Apart from changing tastes, it seems Drusky was losing his enthusiasm with stardom. Months before his death he said - “It was hard, but when you were young, everything was coming up roses, ... parts of my life was exciting, but parts were work. The longer you are in it, the more work oriented
it became". From the early 1970's, Drusky, strongly influenced by his wife, went "full-on" religious, becoming a Seventh Day Adventist. He went on to record 5 "countrified" gospel albums in the 1980's and 1990's, as well as touring worldwide with an evangelist and teaching in the church.
Drusky's maintained his membership with the Grand Ole Opry, which ensured him exposure for decades long after the radio hits stopped coming. He appeared regularly on the program until the year of his death, singing the hit songs he
had racked up in the 1960s and 1970s in addition to performing country standards from other artists, which became a tradition at the Opry. In 2004, Drusky died at age 74 from complications stemming from lung cancer, which he fought
for several years.
Once again I'm flying off for another week or so, but will be back with another star from the early sixties.
to rank amongst the the greats.
Though Drusky got his first big break through Faron Young recording and making # 1 hits of 2 of Drusky's songs, and
in gratitude, used his influence to get Drusky inducted into the Grand Ole Opry (as outlined yesterday), they didn't stay close - Faron was a hard living, hard drinking extrovert who led the "Nashville brat pack", but, in contrast, Drusky married a no-nonsense religious woman who steered him away from the party and sin scene to the much less colourful life of sobriety. Drusky's career peaked around 1965 when he finally achieved a # 1 hit (after previously coming so close with multiple top 5 hits) albeit as half of a duo, and he then appeared in 3 country music movies - "White Lightning Express", "Forty Acre Feud" and "Golden Guitar".
Down in the Valley' (aka 'Birmingham Jail') is a traditional folk song from the 1920's (though the melody is believed to be centuries old) recorded by many artists, most notably by Lead Belly and Burl Ives. Though Drusky never released this as a single, but only from his 1964 album "Songs of the Cities" (an ironic title for a country music LP), it's now about the most popular example of his voice and laid back "Perry Como" style -
Written by songwriter, Liz Anderson, 'All My Friends Are Gonna Be Stranger' is now best remembered as the first top 10 breakthrough hit for the then little known singer, Merle Haggard. After the track was cut and the single printed, Haggard learned Drusky had also just recorded and was releasing it. Although both Drusky and Haggard versions eventually made it into the top 10 simultaneously, Haggard reaching # 10 but the better known Drusky topping that at # 6 in 1964, the competing singles undoubtedly prevented either version for being a top 5 and perhaps denied Drusky from achieving a
# 1 hit (yet again).
The song itself is about typical country music themes of love and betrayal, with the narrator embittered by a deceitful lover, not only vowing to be through with love but to no longer trust anyone at all - not even his friends -
After coming so close so many times, Drusky finally achieved a # 1 hit with a cleverly written song he wrote of love (or lust?), cheating and deception all in one - but he had to be content with sharing the # 1 honours with duo partner, Priscilla Mitchell (at least he got to pocket all the song-writing royalties). Born in 1941, Mitchell was a teenage rock'n'roll singer with a superb voice, becoming a backing singer for NRC Records. However her only real popular success was when she cut a string of duet hits with Drusky, their best-selling recordings being "cheating songs", including their biggest hit together, 'Yes, Mr. Peters', # 1 in 1965 (ironically, both only married once for life and were never involved in any real life scandal, despite all the scandal in their songs). Priscilla Mitchell was married to country singer, songwriter, actor, and great guitarist Jerry Reed from 1959 until his death in 2008. After her brief time in the limelight, which wasn't to her taste, she was happy to retire to raise her daughters while hubby Jerry went on to fame.
Cheating songs are (or at least used to be) a staple of country music, back when country music was actually country and reflected real life. Some cheating songs were subtle, some more open but this has to be the most blatant of 'em all (I'll assume you'll quickly figure out why the male (Drusky) continuously says "Mr Peters") -
The next number is included as it's the very first hit written by a struggling songwriter who was working at a record studio janitor when he first heard his compositions on the air - he had the unusual name of Kris Kristofferson. Despite it being Kristofferson's very first success as a song-writer, its subtle lyrics already show his unmistakable writing style, with the lyrics being whimsical but with an underlying sadness. This only reached # 24 in 1968 (but # 9 in Canada), with Drusky's mellow sound fading from the forever fickle current fashion. The song deserved better -
Drusky had his most successful record in several years with the 1970 road song 'Long Long Texas Road' a top 5 hit (his last top 5). Actually it's not really a road song at all but a song of yearning and reminiscing -
"... Now I yearn for childhood days of model planes and lemonade /
When the day stretched out before me like a long long Texas road ..." -
After 1970, the hits started to dry up for Drusky, though he continued to chart until 1977, even introducing Elton John to country record-buyers with a cover version of 'Dixie Lily' in 1974. Apart from changing tastes, it seems Drusky was losing his enthusiasm with stardom. Months before his death he said - “It was hard, but when you were young, everything was coming up roses, ... parts of my life was exciting, but parts were work. The longer you are in it, the more work oriented
it became". From the early 1970's, Drusky, strongly influenced by his wife, went "full-on" religious, becoming a Seventh Day Adventist. He went on to record 5 "countrified" gospel albums in the 1980's and 1990's, as well as touring worldwide with an evangelist and teaching in the church.
Drusky's maintained his membership with the Grand Ole Opry, which ensured him exposure for decades long after the radio hits stopped coming. He appeared regularly on the program until the year of his death, singing the hit songs he
had racked up in the 1960s and 1970s in addition to performing country standards from other artists, which became a tradition at the Opry. In 2004, Drusky died at age 74 from complications stemming from lung cancer, which he fought
for several years.
Once again I'm flying off for another week or so, but will be back with another star from the early sixties.
Enjoying The Marfa Tapes at the moment. Probably my favourite album of the year so far; just an easy fun listen. Lovely harmonies.
- Jul 26, 2020
- 11,460
- 31,857
- AFL Club
- Port Adelaide
Oh man - it's been 8 years! I was really doubting any sort of comeback, given he's been right off the grid for a few years. Maybe his son, Coleman (or IV), throwing his hat in the ring just last month, continuing the family tradition for the 4th generation, mightv'e prompted his return - and (not so surprisingly) he chose a Coe classic.
Here's Hank iii's son (thus the genuine iv) with one of his first up efforts. At age 30, Coleman is already older than his great-grandfather when he died!) -
And he's also been writing some of his win stuff as well -
III has a son that old? He only turns 49 this year (just looked it up).
Yes - conceived when Hank iii was still a teenager - but he didn't find out until 5 years later when the paternity suit arrived. I've long known III had a son and secretly hoped he might continue the family tradition but over time I gave up any hope - only to be completely surprised by the announcement. These have more info on him -
The Hank Williams Lineage Continues with Hank3’s Son “IV”
There's a new performer on the way, and he's one that has a legitimate claim to arguably the most important bloodline in country music history. That's right, the son of Hank Williams III is getting ready to emerge, and to do so under the moniker "IV."
www.savingcountrymusic.com
IV and the Strange Band Debut “Son of Sin”
A famous family name in country music is both the greatest asset one can hold, and the most unbelievably burdensome yoke from the expectations it foists upon you. At 30 years old, the son of Shelton Hank Williams III has decided to throw his hat in the ring.
www.savingcountrymusic.com
So I'm back in Melbourne, locked up again and ready to resume the history. Our next artist, who finally broke through with a huge hit in 1962 at age 39 (though his manager made out he was 29) shared his memories of his early childhood in a 1971 interview, saying he grew up "...about as poor as you can be." His dad was a farmer who used only a single plow and mule. But their land was poor red land dirt and didn't favour any type of good crop. When things started to happen for Him in the music business, it made him all the more grateful and thankful for his early life experiences.
Claude King was born near Shreveport, Louisiana in 1923 and, like most others so far in this history, King came to love music at an early age listening to the Grand Ole Opry on radio and to local musicians. When he had saved up 50 cents, he bought his first guitar from a neighbor farmer at age 12. He served in the US navy in various Pacific theatre ops in WW2. Like Roy Drusky, King was a good baseballer, attending the University of Idaho on a baseball scholarship and was offered a contract with a Chicago Cubs farm team. But after his military service, he decided that music was his go.
King spent the late 1940's and early '50s working as a construction engineer and performing music in local clubs, TV
and radio. He met up with Tillman Franks, who became Johnny Horton's manager and also a top talent official with the Louisiana Hayride, which, as we've already seen in the history, the hottest show around the southwest back then and a genuine rival to the Grand Ole Opry for some years. King cut his first single way back in 1947. He followed up with other singles, including 4 in 1952, with no real success. However he was fortunate his hometown was Shreveport, home of the Louisiana Hayride, The stars included many who became legendary in country music history such as Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Elvis Presley, Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Davis, Slim Whitman, Faron Young, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves and George Jones. but despite his Hayride appearances amongst these major stars and friendship with Tillman Franks and Horton, King remained just under the national radar through the 1950's.
King, with his rural Louisiana twang, sounded like and sang in the same style as his friend and idol, Johnny Horton (see posts # 296-308) and indeed one should reference Horton in critiquing King. It was a sad irony that the tragic death of Horton created the opportunity for King, sounding so similar, to fill the void he left. A song that would've been offered to Horton had he still lived, 'Big River, Big Man', was written by Claude and Tillman Franks for 20th Century Fox to be used
in a John Wanye film. The movie was never made because "Cleopatra" went way over budge, but it still got King his first hit at age 38, 14 years, 3 record companies and many singles after his first recording, reaching # 7 in 1961 -
'The Comancheros' was written by Claude and Tillman Franks for 20th Century Fox to be used in a John Wayne film of
the same title. It wasn't used in the movie but it was played for the movies previews and it still got King his second # 7 hit in 1961. The song itself had a popular theme at the time - about a fugitive from the law showing individual courage
(a theme similar to Jimmy Dean's signature song 'Big Bad John') but in this case there also appears to be some re-writing of history - afterall who stole whose land? Perhaps these days a similar themed song would instead refer to standing up to the Comancheros bikie gang. In any case, it's a rollicking good tune, with the deft touch of Spanish horns (this was before Johnny Cash used them in 'Ring Of Fire') -
The ballad most associated with Claude King - his signature song - is the classic tune Merle Kilgore first wrote (and King later improved with storyline alterations, thus getting co-songwriting credit), 'Wolverton Mountain'. The tale of one Clifton Clowers who is "mighty handy with a gun and a knife" and keeps his daughter sequestered in their mountain home away from potential suitors, was actually about a real life uncle of Merle's that lived on Wolverton Mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks (though the story itself is totally fictitious - Kilgore even first sang his original song version to Uncle Clifton, who approved of it - but he was, in real-life, never the dangerous over-protective would-be killer made out in the song, but instead, by all accounts, a gentle, well educated (he could read in Latin and Greek) father of 6 children, including 2 girls, who only used a knife to whittle flutes. He died in 1994 at age 102.
The song itself with it's invented story was a huge hit in 1962, crossing over to # 2 on the pop charts (remember that rock'n'roll was in recess at this time), selling well over 3 million and making Clifton Clowers home on Wolverton (correct spelling is actually Wolverton) Mountain a popular tourist destination for decades to come, with Clowers living on as a local celebrity, but with an unchanged life style, until his death in 1994 at age 102. The slide show here features a photo of the real Clifton Clowers with his horse, ploughing his land at age 100 -
King followed up the immense national crossover success of 'Wolverton Mountain' with a strange choice, albeit still a
top 10 hit in 1962 - though this song no doubt charted much higher in the South but not at all anywhere outside the South and had no crossover appeal. In truth, musically it's not much at all, but it's historically interesting for showing
a segment of southern culture at a time when the sometimes violent resistance to the civil rights movement was at it's height. The song about the civil war torching of Atlanta, but also predicting the South will "rise again", would probably
be cancelled from any release or airplay now. Remember, Claude King came from the same Deep South state, Louisiana, as Johnny Rebel, infamous for his openly rascist songs in the 1960's (though they became ironically popular in African-American juke-joints in the 1970's). Anyway, back to this song, the video shows scenes of the burning of Atlanta from
the Civil War epic 'Gone With The Wind' -
After several more hits just missing the top 10 (4 reaching between # 11 & 13 in 1963) the ballad 'Sam Hill' reached
# 11 in 1964. The ballad asks the question - "... What in Sam Hill is going on? ..." - but the lyrics make the answer all
too obvious -
More on Claude King tomorrow as we proceed to the seventies - though nothing would match the huge success of his signature tune, 'Wolverton Mountain'.
Claude King was born near Shreveport, Louisiana in 1923 and, like most others so far in this history, King came to love music at an early age listening to the Grand Ole Opry on radio and to local musicians. When he had saved up 50 cents, he bought his first guitar from a neighbor farmer at age 12. He served in the US navy in various Pacific theatre ops in WW2. Like Roy Drusky, King was a good baseballer, attending the University of Idaho on a baseball scholarship and was offered a contract with a Chicago Cubs farm team. But after his military service, he decided that music was his go.
King spent the late 1940's and early '50s working as a construction engineer and performing music in local clubs, TV
and radio. He met up with Tillman Franks, who became Johnny Horton's manager and also a top talent official with the Louisiana Hayride, which, as we've already seen in the history, the hottest show around the southwest back then and a genuine rival to the Grand Ole Opry for some years. King cut his first single way back in 1947. He followed up with other singles, including 4 in 1952, with no real success. However he was fortunate his hometown was Shreveport, home of the Louisiana Hayride, The stars included many who became legendary in country music history such as Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Elvis Presley, Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Davis, Slim Whitman, Faron Young, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves and George Jones. but despite his Hayride appearances amongst these major stars and friendship with Tillman Franks and Horton, King remained just under the national radar through the 1950's.
King, with his rural Louisiana twang, sounded like and sang in the same style as his friend and idol, Johnny Horton (see posts # 296-308) and indeed one should reference Horton in critiquing King. It was a sad irony that the tragic death of Horton created the opportunity for King, sounding so similar, to fill the void he left. A song that would've been offered to Horton had he still lived, 'Big River, Big Man', was written by Claude and Tillman Franks for 20th Century Fox to be used
in a John Wanye film. The movie was never made because "Cleopatra" went way over budge, but it still got King his first hit at age 38, 14 years, 3 record companies and many singles after his first recording, reaching # 7 in 1961 -
'The Comancheros' was written by Claude and Tillman Franks for 20th Century Fox to be used in a John Wayne film of
the same title. It wasn't used in the movie but it was played for the movies previews and it still got King his second # 7 hit in 1961. The song itself had a popular theme at the time - about a fugitive from the law showing individual courage
(a theme similar to Jimmy Dean's signature song 'Big Bad John') but in this case there also appears to be some re-writing of history - afterall who stole whose land? Perhaps these days a similar themed song would instead refer to standing up to the Comancheros bikie gang. In any case, it's a rollicking good tune, with the deft touch of Spanish horns (this was before Johnny Cash used them in 'Ring Of Fire') -
The ballad most associated with Claude King - his signature song - is the classic tune Merle Kilgore first wrote (and King later improved with storyline alterations, thus getting co-songwriting credit), 'Wolverton Mountain'. The tale of one Clifton Clowers who is "mighty handy with a gun and a knife" and keeps his daughter sequestered in their mountain home away from potential suitors, was actually about a real life uncle of Merle's that lived on Wolverton Mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks (though the story itself is totally fictitious - Kilgore even first sang his original song version to Uncle Clifton, who approved of it - but he was, in real-life, never the dangerous over-protective would-be killer made out in the song, but instead, by all accounts, a gentle, well educated (he could read in Latin and Greek) father of 6 children, including 2 girls, who only used a knife to whittle flutes. He died in 1994 at age 102.
The song itself with it's invented story was a huge hit in 1962, crossing over to # 2 on the pop charts (remember that rock'n'roll was in recess at this time), selling well over 3 million and making Clifton Clowers home on Wolverton (correct spelling is actually Wolverton) Mountain a popular tourist destination for decades to come, with Clowers living on as a local celebrity, but with an unchanged life style, until his death in 1994 at age 102. The slide show here features a photo of the real Clifton Clowers with his horse, ploughing his land at age 100 -
King followed up the immense national crossover success of 'Wolverton Mountain' with a strange choice, albeit still a
top 10 hit in 1962 - though this song no doubt charted much higher in the South but not at all anywhere outside the South and had no crossover appeal. In truth, musically it's not much at all, but it's historically interesting for showing
a segment of southern culture at a time when the sometimes violent resistance to the civil rights movement was at it's height. The song about the civil war torching of Atlanta, but also predicting the South will "rise again", would probably
be cancelled from any release or airplay now. Remember, Claude King came from the same Deep South state, Louisiana, as Johnny Rebel, infamous for his openly rascist songs in the 1960's (though they became ironically popular in African-American juke-joints in the 1970's). Anyway, back to this song, the video shows scenes of the burning of Atlanta from
the Civil War epic 'Gone With The Wind' -
After several more hits just missing the top 10 (4 reaching between # 11 & 13 in 1963) the ballad 'Sam Hill' reached
# 11 in 1964. The ballad asks the question - "... What in Sam Hill is going on? ..." - but the lyrics make the answer all
too obvious -
More on Claude King tomorrow as we proceed to the seventies - though nothing would match the huge success of his signature tune, 'Wolverton Mountain'.
Part of Claude King's eventual success (though it took him until age 39 to finally top the charts) might've simply been the luck of having Shreveport as his hometown. This meant he grew up in the heart of the "Magic Circle", a description of the ArkLaTex area coined by his longtime friend (and talented song-writer and manager) Tillman Franks to describe "an area 50 miles in radius from downtown Shreveport. All kinds of music evolved from this Magic Circle.” He was right - the area around Shreveport has a majority black population and played a pivotal role in innovations in gospel, delta blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul as well as country music, being the home of the Louisiana Hayride.
In 1965 King was back in the Top 10 with 'Tiger Woman', another number he co-wrote with Merle Kilgore, reaching # 6. Here he describes a woman who seems dangerous - and hence interesting -
"... Well you tore me up in little bitty pieces you dragged me all over the ground /
I was a big man but now I ain't nothin' you sure know how to put a good man down ..."
The great story song 'Laura, What's He Got That I Ain't Got' was first recorded by Leon Ashley in 1967, becoming his only # 1 hit. Frankie Laine and Brook Benton took cover versions to the pop and adult contemporary charts that year, while Claude King, Marty Robbins and later Kenny Rogers charted their own versions.
As Leon Ashley was pretty much a "one hit wonder", he won't feature in this history, but I thought this song was just too good to be overlooked altogether, so here's King's 1967 top 50 cover - the song starts with an emotional narrator with a clear undertone of menace - and continues to get darker and darker -
So who is the gun aimed at? - himself? or his wife? or his wife's lover caught in the act? You can decide.
When Johnny Horton was killed (and Tillman Franks was lucky to survive) in the 1960 car crash, they were actually on their way to Kings property outside Shreveport where Claude was waiting for them for some duck hunting. In 1969, 9 years after Johnny's death, King released the album "I Remember Johnny Horton", as a tribute to his dear friend. The album included a narrated number 'I Remember Johnny', which was more a hagiographic dirge than an account of the "real" Johnny Horton. However, a single from the album, a cover of Horton's 'All For The Love Of A Girl' became King's
last Top 10 hit, reaching # 9 in 1969 -
Perhaps Bob Dylan's chief (though by no means only) contribution to classic country, King's 1970 cover of 'I'll Be Yours Baby Tonight' wasn't a such big hit for him but it's the perfect excuse to include this classic Dylan song -
Mary's Vineyard, from 1970, was King's last top 20 hit. In a song somewhat similar in theme to 'Woolverton Mountain', here we have a moonshine operator with not one but 3 lovely daughters. Evidently his business must've prevented him from keeping too close an eye on his daughters as the singer gets to know from first hand experience who is the pick of the bunch -
After 1970, King gradually faded from the charts, his last appearance being in 1977 as he went into semi-retirement in his mid-fifties. However, he still had roles in several feature films, including "Swamp Girl" in 1971 and "Year of the Yahoo!" in 1972 (I never said they were top grade movies).
King had married at age 26 back in 1949. His wife was age 15 at the time. As previously mentioned several times, this wasn't at all unusual at that time - in fact it was normal in the South and especially in Loiusiana (recall that Jerry Lewis legally married his 13 year old second cousin). In any case, the marriage lasted 67 years until his death.
Shreveport did not forget its native son, in 2007 proclaiming February 11 as "Claude King Day" in his honour. He received plaques, trophies, awards and plaudits in a ceremony at The Municipal Auditorium, where he spent many years on The Louisiana Hayride entertaining audiences. One plaque of appreciation was from, and signed by, the many musicians who had revered him through the years. Musicians who cut their teeth on the road with Claude came from all over the US to honor and play again with him. It was also his 84th birthday.
After the ceremony, which was broadcast live, and a few opening performers, 84 year old Claude and the musicians of yore took the stage to perform a concert to a packed audience, where though he had not done a concert in over 20 years, he turned back the clock. His voice was in rare shape, his stage personality during the set were just typical Claude King. He was greeted with a standing ovation from a capacity crowd at the famous auditorium as he closed with his timeless classic 'Wolverine Mountain'.
In 2011, King was named one of "Five Living Legends of Shreveport". Others named Included guitar legend James Burton, Hank Williams, Jr., and Louisiana Hayride announcer and radio legend Frank Page. King, still seemingly in good health, died suddenly at his Shreveport home in 2013, at the age of 90. He has still hasn't been admitted into the Country Music HoF - another controversial omission.
In 1965 King was back in the Top 10 with 'Tiger Woman', another number he co-wrote with Merle Kilgore, reaching # 6. Here he describes a woman who seems dangerous - and hence interesting -
"... Well you tore me up in little bitty pieces you dragged me all over the ground /
I was a big man but now I ain't nothin' you sure know how to put a good man down ..."
The great story song 'Laura, What's He Got That I Ain't Got' was first recorded by Leon Ashley in 1967, becoming his only # 1 hit. Frankie Laine and Brook Benton took cover versions to the pop and adult contemporary charts that year, while Claude King, Marty Robbins and later Kenny Rogers charted their own versions.
As Leon Ashley was pretty much a "one hit wonder", he won't feature in this history, but I thought this song was just too good to be overlooked altogether, so here's King's 1967 top 50 cover - the song starts with an emotional narrator with a clear undertone of menace - and continues to get darker and darker -
So who is the gun aimed at? - himself? or his wife? or his wife's lover caught in the act? You can decide.
When Johnny Horton was killed (and Tillman Franks was lucky to survive) in the 1960 car crash, they were actually on their way to Kings property outside Shreveport where Claude was waiting for them for some duck hunting. In 1969, 9 years after Johnny's death, King released the album "I Remember Johnny Horton", as a tribute to his dear friend. The album included a narrated number 'I Remember Johnny', which was more a hagiographic dirge than an account of the "real" Johnny Horton. However, a single from the album, a cover of Horton's 'All For The Love Of A Girl' became King's
last Top 10 hit, reaching # 9 in 1969 -
Perhaps Bob Dylan's chief (though by no means only) contribution to classic country, King's 1970 cover of 'I'll Be Yours Baby Tonight' wasn't a such big hit for him but it's the perfect excuse to include this classic Dylan song -
Mary's Vineyard, from 1970, was King's last top 20 hit. In a song somewhat similar in theme to 'Woolverton Mountain', here we have a moonshine operator with not one but 3 lovely daughters. Evidently his business must've prevented him from keeping too close an eye on his daughters as the singer gets to know from first hand experience who is the pick of the bunch -
After 1970, King gradually faded from the charts, his last appearance being in 1977 as he went into semi-retirement in his mid-fifties. However, he still had roles in several feature films, including "Swamp Girl" in 1971 and "Year of the Yahoo!" in 1972 (I never said they were top grade movies).
King had married at age 26 back in 1949. His wife was age 15 at the time. As previously mentioned several times, this wasn't at all unusual at that time - in fact it was normal in the South and especially in Loiusiana (recall that Jerry Lewis legally married his 13 year old second cousin). In any case, the marriage lasted 67 years until his death.
Shreveport did not forget its native son, in 2007 proclaiming February 11 as "Claude King Day" in his honour. He received plaques, trophies, awards and plaudits in a ceremony at The Municipal Auditorium, where he spent many years on The Louisiana Hayride entertaining audiences. One plaque of appreciation was from, and signed by, the many musicians who had revered him through the years. Musicians who cut their teeth on the road with Claude came from all over the US to honor and play again with him. It was also his 84th birthday.
After the ceremony, which was broadcast live, and a few opening performers, 84 year old Claude and the musicians of yore took the stage to perform a concert to a packed audience, where though he had not done a concert in over 20 years, he turned back the clock. His voice was in rare shape, his stage personality during the set were just typical Claude King. He was greeted with a standing ovation from a capacity crowd at the famous auditorium as he closed with his timeless classic 'Wolverine Mountain'.
In 2011, King was named one of "Five Living Legends of Shreveport". Others named Included guitar legend James Burton, Hank Williams, Jr., and Louisiana Hayride announcer and radio legend Frank Page. King, still seemingly in good health, died suddenly at his Shreveport home in 2013, at the age of 90. He has still hasn't been admitted into the Country Music HoF - another controversial omission.
Today is a music history rest day, but I stumbled upon this unusual song from 10 years ago (when Claude King was still alive), a sort of rhyming mini-bio tribute to King set to music (though the often blurry slide show pics are on the singer, not King) -
So after the recent not so huge names of Roy Drusky and Claude King, next time I'll return with an out'n'out legend of 20th century American ... and world music - and an artist unlike any covered so far. He made an indelible mark on country music in 1962
So after the recent not so huge names of Roy Drusky and Claude King, next time I'll return with an out'n'out legend of 20th century American ... and world music - and an artist unlike any covered so far. He made an indelible mark on country music in 1962
We now welcome a legend of American - and world - music. I won't attempt to cover his career except as it directly relates to country music, as it's beyond my scope - just know (if you didn't already) that Ray Charles, by fusing gospel, blue and R&B, became recognised as the father of a whole new genre - Soul Music. Yet he always maintained that his first love was country music, and when he finally got the freedom to record whatever he wanted, he chose his version, or interpretation, of country classics. It was (against nearly all predictions) a huge success and had its own profound impact on popular music worldwide.
The first (but he won't be the last) African-American in this so far White dominated history (had I done a Blues history, which I nearly did, the opposite would've applied), Ray Charles Robinson was born in 1930 in rural Georgia, his mother a poor sickly sharecropper, his father an itinerant labourer who soon shot through. At an early age, his vision began to deteriorate due to glaucoma and by age 7, Ray was completely blind. Shortly after losing his vision in 1937, his mother destitute, Ray was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to attend a special school for the deaf and visually impaired (how this poor rural black boy was chosen seems unclear - but it turned out to be the luckiest break he ever got!). At that time, the school – founded by a deaf man – was called "The Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb" (title words were used very literally back then) - it's now called "The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind"; the largest such school in the US.
During the 8 years he spent at the School, Ray discovered and developed his musical skills and was known to be the most talented musician at the school. The school encouraged his natural gifts, teaching him how to play the piano, saxophone, organ, trumpet and clarinet. In addition, he was also taught how to not only read music in Braille, but also how to write and arrange music in that format – a life-changing skill which gave him the ability to compose his own songs.
Growing up poor in rural Georgia, the only nights Charles would be allowed to stay up late were when the Grand Ole Opry was on the radio (so apart from being black and blind, his background was typical of our artists here). He said Country Music had always been in his soul. After he attained stardom, he told his entourage he wanted to record a country album, and against their strong advise, pitched it to record executives who rejected it, saying that any country album would flop. However, Ray trusted his gut and after he signed an historic breakthrough record deal which gave him complete artistic control (as well as eventual ownership of the master tapes), he promptly went ahead recording a country album - but in his own distinctive style and sound - hence its title starting with the word "Modern", a word not usually associated with country music.
Regarded by critics as Charles' best studio albums, "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" (Volumes 1 & 2) are considered as not only be landmark albums in American music but amongthe greatest albums ever recorde and became instant classics when released in 1962. The album's integration of soul and country music bent racial barriers in popular music, amid the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite being disparaged by both country and R&B music "purists" Vol 1 charted at #1 for 17 weeks, was the first country album ever to be certified RIAA Gold and was amongst the first albums to be inducted into the Grammy HoF, along with its chart-topping single 'I Can’t Stop Loving You', for historical significance. The success led to the recording of Vol. 2. Focusing more on balladry, one side featured performances by the Ray Charles Big Band with the Raelettes, and the other with a string section and the Jack Halloran Singers - again upsetting the "purists". But like its predecessor, it was released to both critical and commercial acclaim.
We've already seen the classic 'I Can't Stop Loving You' written and composed by the king of heartbreak and loneliness, the shy, reclusive Don Gibson, released in 1958 as the B-side of another classic 'Oh, Lonesome Me' becoming a double-sided classic hit single (see post # 400). The song was released as a single from Charles' groundbreaking Vol 1 album and his soulful cover version, reached # 1 in 1962 on all the charts across the spectrum - Pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary -
A beautiful but sad song of thrawted, unrequited love, all due to a choking shyness, written by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold in 1955, 'You Don't Know Me' was released as a single by Arnold in 1956, but by far and away the best-selling version is by Ray, who took it to #2 on the pop charts and # 1 on the country charts in 1962. Ray's heartfelt version can make you feel good about being sad! -
The Ted Daffan 1942 country standard 'Born to Lose' sold over a million copies. Charles version, with its lush strings and backing chorus on his seminal country album also appeared on the flip side of his massively popular single 'I Can’t Stop Loving You' and itself reached # 13 - this sad country standard describes a feeling all to familiar to all too many -
'Careless Love' is a traditional song, dating from the 19th century, with several popular blues as well as country versions and considered a Dixieland standard, recorded by many artists but the most popular were blues versions in the 1920's. Here the song is synced to scenes from "The Great Gatsby" movie, which had its own theme of careless love -
'Hang Your Head In Shame' was previously a 1945 hit for the king of Western Swing, Bob Wills and was also covered in 1956 by his successor for the title, Hank Thompson. Both (naturally) recorded this as an uptempo Western Swing number. Ray slows the tempo down with a Nashville Sound like arrangement (though he actually recorded it in LA). Although Ray's version doesn't swing like Wills' or Thompson's, it's pathos is probably more in sync with the accusatory lyrics of this cheating song -
There's more to tell and listen to on Ray Charles tomorrow.
The first (but he won't be the last) African-American in this so far White dominated history (had I done a Blues history, which I nearly did, the opposite would've applied), Ray Charles Robinson was born in 1930 in rural Georgia, his mother a poor sickly sharecropper, his father an itinerant labourer who soon shot through. At an early age, his vision began to deteriorate due to glaucoma and by age 7, Ray was completely blind. Shortly after losing his vision in 1937, his mother destitute, Ray was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to attend a special school for the deaf and visually impaired (how this poor rural black boy was chosen seems unclear - but it turned out to be the luckiest break he ever got!). At that time, the school – founded by a deaf man – was called "The Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb" (title words were used very literally back then) - it's now called "The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind"; the largest such school in the US.
During the 8 years he spent at the School, Ray discovered and developed his musical skills and was known to be the most talented musician at the school. The school encouraged his natural gifts, teaching him how to play the piano, saxophone, organ, trumpet and clarinet. In addition, he was also taught how to not only read music in Braille, but also how to write and arrange music in that format – a life-changing skill which gave him the ability to compose his own songs.
Growing up poor in rural Georgia, the only nights Charles would be allowed to stay up late were when the Grand Ole Opry was on the radio (so apart from being black and blind, his background was typical of our artists here). He said Country Music had always been in his soul. After he attained stardom, he told his entourage he wanted to record a country album, and against their strong advise, pitched it to record executives who rejected it, saying that any country album would flop. However, Ray trusted his gut and after he signed an historic breakthrough record deal which gave him complete artistic control (as well as eventual ownership of the master tapes), he promptly went ahead recording a country album - but in his own distinctive style and sound - hence its title starting with the word "Modern", a word not usually associated with country music.
Regarded by critics as Charles' best studio albums, "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" (Volumes 1 & 2) are considered as not only be landmark albums in American music but amongthe greatest albums ever recorde and became instant classics when released in 1962. The album's integration of soul and country music bent racial barriers in popular music, amid the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite being disparaged by both country and R&B music "purists" Vol 1 charted at #1 for 17 weeks, was the first country album ever to be certified RIAA Gold and was amongst the first albums to be inducted into the Grammy HoF, along with its chart-topping single 'I Can’t Stop Loving You', for historical significance. The success led to the recording of Vol. 2. Focusing more on balladry, one side featured performances by the Ray Charles Big Band with the Raelettes, and the other with a string section and the Jack Halloran Singers - again upsetting the "purists". But like its predecessor, it was released to both critical and commercial acclaim.
We've already seen the classic 'I Can't Stop Loving You' written and composed by the king of heartbreak and loneliness, the shy, reclusive Don Gibson, released in 1958 as the B-side of another classic 'Oh, Lonesome Me' becoming a double-sided classic hit single (see post # 400). The song was released as a single from Charles' groundbreaking Vol 1 album and his soulful cover version, reached # 1 in 1962 on all the charts across the spectrum - Pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary -
A beautiful but sad song of thrawted, unrequited love, all due to a choking shyness, written by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold in 1955, 'You Don't Know Me' was released as a single by Arnold in 1956, but by far and away the best-selling version is by Ray, who took it to #2 on the pop charts and # 1 on the country charts in 1962. Ray's heartfelt version can make you feel good about being sad! -
The Ted Daffan 1942 country standard 'Born to Lose' sold over a million copies. Charles version, with its lush strings and backing chorus on his seminal country album also appeared on the flip side of his massively popular single 'I Can’t Stop Loving You' and itself reached # 13 - this sad country standard describes a feeling all to familiar to all too many -
'Careless Love' is a traditional song, dating from the 19th century, with several popular blues as well as country versions and considered a Dixieland standard, recorded by many artists but the most popular were blues versions in the 1920's. Here the song is synced to scenes from "The Great Gatsby" movie, which had its own theme of careless love -
'Hang Your Head In Shame' was previously a 1945 hit for the king of Western Swing, Bob Wills and was also covered in 1956 by his successor for the title, Hank Thompson. Both (naturally) recorded this as an uptempo Western Swing number. Ray slows the tempo down with a Nashville Sound like arrangement (though he actually recorded it in LA). Although Ray's version doesn't swing like Wills' or Thompson's, it's pathos is probably more in sync with the accusatory lyrics of this cheating song -
There's more to tell and listen to on Ray Charles tomorrow.
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“I just wanted to try my hand at country music,” Charles wrote in Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story, his 1978 autobiography, explaining his decision to record "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music", against the advise of everyone around him. “After all, the Grand Ole Opry had been performing inside my head since I was a kid in the country.”
Not only was it one of the best-selling albums by a black musician at the height of the civil rights movement but also one of the top country music albums of the era. The extra oomph comes from understanding the background and the situation of the current events. You see, here was Ray Charles, a black musician, doing white folk, country and western music, right in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement (about 18 months before the famed Martin Luther King Jr. speech). Some radio stations just outright banned the record on these grounds alone - though others simply didn't regard Ray's interpretation of these country standards as being "real country". To me, the often overly slick, string-saturated production sometimes does takes too much away from enjoying Ray Charles' voice and the beauty of the song choices.
Whie Charles' appeal to interpreting the country standards into his own unique blend of soul and rhythm and blues was mostly driven by the similarities of the raw content within the "rural poor white" country songs and the blues of the poor and oppressed blacks, both genres emerged from the South and we're influenced by the other. In a Rolling Stone interview, Charles said of the similarities between the blues and country music: "The words to country songs are very earthy like the blues, see, very down. They're not as dressed up, and the people are very honest and say, 'Look, I miss you, darlin', so I went out and I got drunk in this bar.' That's the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley (NYC) one will say, 'Oh, I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and I had dinner for one.' That's cleaned up now, you see? But country songs and the blues is like it is".
Due to the unprecedented success of "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music", within 7 months, Ray released a 2nd volume of the album, which included country classic tracks like 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'Your Cheating Heart' and and once again it went to the top of the charts.
A song of intense yearning (young love?) 'I Love You So Much It Hurts' was written and released by Floyd Tillman in 1948, reaching # 6 and was recorded by many since, but it was Patsy Cline who had the definitive cover that made it a standard in 1961 -
I dedicated a whole post (# 153) to the Jimmie Davis 1939 standard 'You Are My Sunshine'. Well it was sure transformed (not in a bad way) by Ray as he energises it with some R&B oomph -
There was never a chance Ray Charles wouldn't include a Hank Williams number on the albums - or 2 or 3. One of Hank's all time classics 'Your Cheating Heart' was released in 1953 just after in his passing (see post # 211). The song, almost certainly referring to his ex-wife, Audrey Sheppard, became synonymous with the myth of Hank Williams as a haunted, lonely figure who expressed heartbreak, jealousy and pain with an authenticity that became the standard for country music. The name of the song was used as the title of Hank Williams' 1964 biopic. "Your Cheatin' Heart". In his version, Ray takes out much of the anger that pervades Hank's original and instead evokes a feeling of tragedy in his down-tempo cover -
Another cover of another Hank Williams classic, 'You Win Again' was originally recorded by Hank in 1952, just one day after his divorce from Audrey Williams was finalized - and the lyrics and the emotion in which they were delivere speaks volumes of Hank's bitterness and sense of betrayal ... and his lingering feelings that remain (see post 211 again). In Ray's version, which was also released as a single that reached # 7, he somewhat evokes the emotions in this song that for Hank were all too real -
"... You have no heart, you have no shame / You take true love, and give the blame / I guess that I, should not complain / I love you still, you win again ..."
And we finish today with yet another Hank Williams classic (he had plenty!), 'Take These Chains From My Heart', recorded at Williams' final ever recording session in September 1952. Like 'Your Cheatin' Heart', the song's theme of despair, so vividly articulated by Williams' impassioned singing, reinforced the image of Hank as a tortured, mythic figure. Ray delivered a smoother, slightly less despairing version, but still puts soul into it. He took to # 8 on the pop charts and # 5 in the UK -
Tomorrow will have Ray's continuing involvement with country music in the years after his seminal "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" albums and singles in 1962.
Not only was it one of the best-selling albums by a black musician at the height of the civil rights movement but also one of the top country music albums of the era. The extra oomph comes from understanding the background and the situation of the current events. You see, here was Ray Charles, a black musician, doing white folk, country and western music, right in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement (about 18 months before the famed Martin Luther King Jr. speech). Some radio stations just outright banned the record on these grounds alone - though others simply didn't regard Ray's interpretation of these country standards as being "real country". To me, the often overly slick, string-saturated production sometimes does takes too much away from enjoying Ray Charles' voice and the beauty of the song choices.
Whie Charles' appeal to interpreting the country standards into his own unique blend of soul and rhythm and blues was mostly driven by the similarities of the raw content within the "rural poor white" country songs and the blues of the poor and oppressed blacks, both genres emerged from the South and we're influenced by the other. In a Rolling Stone interview, Charles said of the similarities between the blues and country music: "The words to country songs are very earthy like the blues, see, very down. They're not as dressed up, and the people are very honest and say, 'Look, I miss you, darlin', so I went out and I got drunk in this bar.' That's the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley (NYC) one will say, 'Oh, I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and I had dinner for one.' That's cleaned up now, you see? But country songs and the blues is like it is".
Due to the unprecedented success of "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music", within 7 months, Ray released a 2nd volume of the album, which included country classic tracks like 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'Your Cheating Heart' and and once again it went to the top of the charts.
A song of intense yearning (young love?) 'I Love You So Much It Hurts' was written and released by Floyd Tillman in 1948, reaching # 6 and was recorded by many since, but it was Patsy Cline who had the definitive cover that made it a standard in 1961 -
I dedicated a whole post (# 153) to the Jimmie Davis 1939 standard 'You Are My Sunshine'. Well it was sure transformed (not in a bad way) by Ray as he energises it with some R&B oomph -
There was never a chance Ray Charles wouldn't include a Hank Williams number on the albums - or 2 or 3. One of Hank's all time classics 'Your Cheating Heart' was released in 1953 just after in his passing (see post # 211). The song, almost certainly referring to his ex-wife, Audrey Sheppard, became synonymous with the myth of Hank Williams as a haunted, lonely figure who expressed heartbreak, jealousy and pain with an authenticity that became the standard for country music. The name of the song was used as the title of Hank Williams' 1964 biopic. "Your Cheatin' Heart". In his version, Ray takes out much of the anger that pervades Hank's original and instead evokes a feeling of tragedy in his down-tempo cover -
Another cover of another Hank Williams classic, 'You Win Again' was originally recorded by Hank in 1952, just one day after his divorce from Audrey Williams was finalized - and the lyrics and the emotion in which they were delivere speaks volumes of Hank's bitterness and sense of betrayal ... and his lingering feelings that remain (see post 211 again). In Ray's version, which was also released as a single that reached # 7, he somewhat evokes the emotions in this song that for Hank were all too real -
"... You have no heart, you have no shame / You take true love, and give the blame / I guess that I, should not complain / I love you still, you win again ..."
And we finish today with yet another Hank Williams classic (he had plenty!), 'Take These Chains From My Heart', recorded at Williams' final ever recording session in September 1952. Like 'Your Cheatin' Heart', the song's theme of despair, so vividly articulated by Williams' impassioned singing, reinforced the image of Hank as a tortured, mythic figure. Ray delivered a smoother, slightly less despairing version, but still puts soul into it. He took to # 8 on the pop charts and # 5 in the UK -
Tomorrow will have Ray's continuing involvement with country music in the years after his seminal "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" albums and singles in 1962.
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Ray's influence didn’t end with the "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" albums. After signing a contract with Columbia in 1983, he recorded a string of country albums and had hit singles in duets with singers such as George Jones, Chet Atkins, B. J. Thomas, Mickey Gilley, Hank Williams Jr. and his longtime friend Willie Nelson, with whom he recorded 'Seven Spanish Angel'. In 1984, his collaborative album "Friendship" featured duets with country music's then biggest names, many of whom had been clamoring to record with “The Genius.” Opry members Ricky Skaggs and The Oak Ridge Boys each cut songs with Charles along with Nelson, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard among others.
Charles brought country music standards in front of new audiences - particularly a northern urban audience usually unexposed to mostly southern country music - in a way that was not lost on country artists. “When Ray did ‘I Can’t
Stop Loving You,’ that was probably the time when country music was heard by more people than ever before,” Willie Nelson said in a 2006 Tennessean interview. “He kicked country music forward 50 years. Before him, a lot of people had probably never heard of songs by Don Gibson or Hank Williams.”
‘Crying Time’ was written and released as the B-side to I‘ e Got A Tiger By The Tale’ in 1965 by the legendary Bakersfield Sound artist, Buck Owens (see post # 458). It gained greater success in Ray Charles’ 1966 version, which won 2 Grammy Awards in 1967. Charles intended his version of Owens' song to be a tribute to the country music style he appreciated. He said he didn't record ’Crying Time‘ and other songs written by Owens "… out of disrespect for Buck. I'm crazy about Buck. But I heard something that fit my style. The key was keeping my style while watching my style work in different ways” -
In 1984, when the two legends Ray and Willie got together, they took the western 'Seven Spanish Angels' to # 1. I was torn between the studio or this live version prior to its release. In the end I've gone for the live version as the sound isn't bad (no need for any auto tune mike with these two) and the performance riveting -
The king of country, George Jones asking the king of soul, Ray Charles to sing a song about not seeing a thang - well at least we can believe Ray, not so much George, in this bit of fun. Chet Atkins is the " third man" here as the composer, producer and lead guitarist -
And to finish off, an all time classic - you surely didn't think I'd overlook this! - Ray's signature song 'Georgia On My Mind', written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell and first recorded by Carmichael in 1930. However it was Ray Charles, a native of Georgia, who recorded the definitive version of this in it for his 1960 album “The Genius Hits the Road”. It went to #1 on the pop chart. In 1979, the State of Georgia designated Ray Charles's version the official state song -
As already mentioned in the initial intro, growing up in rural Georgia, the only nights Ray was allowed to stay up late was when the Opry was on the radio. In 1983, he earned a spot on it - and got a standing ovation. The Grand Ole Opry also honored Charles in a 2019 with a national television special dedicated to his artistry and global influence titled - “An Opry Salute to Ray Charles”. featured Chris Young, Boyz II Men, Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes, Cam, Brett Eldredge and Leela James, amongst others. This was 15 years after Ray Charles passed away in 2004 from liver disease at age 73. His achievements and awards are too many for me to list.
Charles brought country music standards in front of new audiences - particularly a northern urban audience usually unexposed to mostly southern country music - in a way that was not lost on country artists. “When Ray did ‘I Can’t
Stop Loving You,’ that was probably the time when country music was heard by more people than ever before,” Willie Nelson said in a 2006 Tennessean interview. “He kicked country music forward 50 years. Before him, a lot of people had probably never heard of songs by Don Gibson or Hank Williams.”
‘Crying Time’ was written and released as the B-side to I‘ e Got A Tiger By The Tale’ in 1965 by the legendary Bakersfield Sound artist, Buck Owens (see post # 458). It gained greater success in Ray Charles’ 1966 version, which won 2 Grammy Awards in 1967. Charles intended his version of Owens' song to be a tribute to the country music style he appreciated. He said he didn't record ’Crying Time‘ and other songs written by Owens "… out of disrespect for Buck. I'm crazy about Buck. But I heard something that fit my style. The key was keeping my style while watching my style work in different ways” -
In 1984, when the two legends Ray and Willie got together, they took the western 'Seven Spanish Angels' to # 1. I was torn between the studio or this live version prior to its release. In the end I've gone for the live version as the sound isn't bad (no need for any auto tune mike with these two) and the performance riveting -
The king of country, George Jones asking the king of soul, Ray Charles to sing a song about not seeing a thang - well at least we can believe Ray, not so much George, in this bit of fun. Chet Atkins is the " third man" here as the composer, producer and lead guitarist -
And to finish off, an all time classic - you surely didn't think I'd overlook this! - Ray's signature song 'Georgia On My Mind', written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell and first recorded by Carmichael in 1930. However it was Ray Charles, a native of Georgia, who recorded the definitive version of this in it for his 1960 album “The Genius Hits the Road”. It went to #1 on the pop chart. In 1979, the State of Georgia designated Ray Charles's version the official state song -
As already mentioned in the initial intro, growing up in rural Georgia, the only nights Ray was allowed to stay up late was when the Opry was on the radio. In 1983, he earned a spot on it - and got a standing ovation. The Grand Ole Opry also honored Charles in a 2019 with a national television special dedicated to his artistry and global influence titled - “An Opry Salute to Ray Charles”. featured Chris Young, Boyz II Men, Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes, Cam, Brett Eldredge and Leela James, amongst others. This was 15 years after Ray Charles passed away in 2004 from liver disease at age 73. His achievements and awards are too many for me to list.
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Our next artist's life reads like a sad country song - she was the eldest of 7 children in a dirt-poor Kentucky farming family laced with challenges of alcoholism, incest, and murder and hit many hurdles on her ascent to fame, including narrowly cheating death - but losing her best friend and singing partner just as they topped the charts. She was wed and divorced 3 times, fought cancer for 16 years and published her 1993 autobiography named after one of her many hits - 'Bus Fare To Kentucky'. Through it all, she established herself as an excellent harmony singer with the ability to sing in tune in different keys - yet had a successful solo career, with one enormous crossover hit that resonates to this day.
Born Mary Penick in rural Kentucky in 1931, she was raised on a poor farm and as a child, like most others in our history, saw singing as a means to escape from poverty. She acquired the nickname of ‘Skeeter’ (a local word for mosquito) from her grandpa because she was always active and "buzzing" around. In her mid-teens, Penick formed a bluegrass duo with schoolfriend Betty Davis and they began to sing harmony. In 1949, under the name "The Davis Sisters" (though Penick and Davis were unrelated) they appeared on local radio and later featured on radio and television in Detroit, Cincinnati, and the Wheeling Jamboree in West Virginia. They first recorded for Fortune Records in 1952 but the following year they successfully auditioned for RCA Records and their smashing debut of a song previously recorded by Sonny James (whose turn in this history is to come), ‘I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know' hit # 1 US country, # 18 US on the pop charts, and spent a massive 26 weeks on the charts with its superb Appalachian harmony (and no auto-tuning of course), in 1953 -
On the B-side is the overlooked but remarkable 'Rock-a-Bye Boogie' which, prior to Carl Perkins, Charlie Feathers and Elvis Presley, foreshadowed rockabilly. This echo laden proto-rockabilly number should get more attention in rock history -
In August 1953, with their big hit still charting, the Davis Sisters left Wheeling after performing after midnight. Around 7:00 am near Cincinnati, a passing motorist fell asleep at the wheel, crashing head-on with the car in which Skeeter and Betty Davis were riding, killing Betty while Skeeter sustained serious head injuries. Stricken by grief, Betty's family clung to Skeeter. After her hospital release, Skeeter moved in with Betty's mother, Ollie, while still recovering from her injuries. She recounted in her autobiography that Ollie "took advantage of this tragic situation to suit her own ends," alleging she kept Skeeter sedated with drugs and sequestered her in the house, where she repeatedly played the girls' records. Once Skeeter recovered, Ollie could "hardly wait for her chance to re-create the Davis Sisters", was paired with Betty's older sister, Georgia, in an attempt to get a new version of the Davis Sisters out before paying audiences. Skeeter (now known professionally as Skeeter Davis) reluctantly agreed, and 6 months after the accident, she resumed singing in the duo with Georgia Davis.
The two recorded several albums, but with limited success, with Skeeter years later saying she didn't have the same chemistry with Georgia as she had with Betty. They toured with legends Hank Snow, Maybelle Carter, Eddy Arnold and Elvis Presley before Georgia quit the music business in 1957 to raise a family. A year later, Skeeter finally broke away from the control of the Davis family and went solo, becoming one of the first RCA artists to work under the guidance of master guitarist/producer Chet Atkins. In her autobiography, she would claim that she felt she had been brainwashed by Ollie and coerced into performing with Georgia.
Skeeter' solo recording career, under the guidance of Chet Atkins, progressed and she gained her first solo US hit in 1958 with ‘Lost To A Geisha Girl’, the female answer to the Hank Locklin hit ‘Geisha Girl’ (see post # 378). The following year, her co-written song ‘Set Him Free’ became Skeeter's first top 10 hit as a solo artist, getting to #5 in 1959.
Don't be fooled when listening to this "duo" - it's just Skeeter, she sings her own dubbed harmony, but the man who voices the "judge" is none other than producer Chet Atkins. This is a song that transports one back to a time when divorces (particularly in the South - and in Australia) were only granted at the behest of a judge, with juicy details
of affairs etc exposed to public condemnation or ridicule, or just good old fashioned voyeuristic entertainment -
Skeeter fulfilled one of her greatest ambitions in 1959, when she moved to Nashville and became a regular member of
the Grand Ole Opry, performing their for the next 40 years before ill-health finally overcame her.
'Am I That Easy To Forget' is a country standard first recorded by Carl Belew which reached # 9 in 1959. skeeter' cover again featured the multi-track "duo" sound. To achieve this, Skeeter had to record twice (at least) holding her tune in
2 keys, a skill she could do flawlessly. This also features the great Jimmy Day on steel guitar and went to # 11 in 1960 -
'Please Help Me, I'm Falling' was a 1960 song recorded by Hank Locklin and was his most successful, his second # 1
(see post # 379), spending 14 weeks at # 1, 9 months on the charts and crossed over to the Pop charts, peaking at # 8. Later in 1960, Skeeter had a hit with an answer song (a popular thing through the 1950's) entitled '(I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too', which peaked at # 2 for 3 weeks on also cracked the pop top 40 chart -
'Last Date' was a 1960 instrumental written and performed by pianist, Floyd Cramer. It exemplifies his famed "slip note" style of piano playing that Cramer made popular as part of Chet Atkin's A-Grade team of Nashville Sound musicians. It peaked at # 11 crossed over, reaching # 2 on the Pop charts (held out from # 1 by Elvis Presley's 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' which was recorded at the same studio (RCA Studio B), using the same piano! It's success led to the vocal version, written by Boudleaux Bryant, Floyd Cramer, and Skeeter Davis. Released as a single in December 1960 from
the album 'Here's The Answer' (even though it's not really an "answer" song as such), it reached #4 in 1961.
The sad song (inevitable given the flavour of Cramer's instrumental), in typical traditional country music style, it describes a situation so many encounter in real life (yep - I've been there too) -
I'll be back tomorrow with just one song - but a song that had a huge influence, not only on country music but on the pop sound of the sixties and even has an on-going influence to this day. It also resulted in ensuring Skeeter's spot on our history of country greats.
Born Mary Penick in rural Kentucky in 1931, she was raised on a poor farm and as a child, like most others in our history, saw singing as a means to escape from poverty. She acquired the nickname of ‘Skeeter’ (a local word for mosquito) from her grandpa because she was always active and "buzzing" around. In her mid-teens, Penick formed a bluegrass duo with schoolfriend Betty Davis and they began to sing harmony. In 1949, under the name "The Davis Sisters" (though Penick and Davis were unrelated) they appeared on local radio and later featured on radio and television in Detroit, Cincinnati, and the Wheeling Jamboree in West Virginia. They first recorded for Fortune Records in 1952 but the following year they successfully auditioned for RCA Records and their smashing debut of a song previously recorded by Sonny James (whose turn in this history is to come), ‘I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know' hit # 1 US country, # 18 US on the pop charts, and spent a massive 26 weeks on the charts with its superb Appalachian harmony (and no auto-tuning of course), in 1953 -
On the B-side is the overlooked but remarkable 'Rock-a-Bye Boogie' which, prior to Carl Perkins, Charlie Feathers and Elvis Presley, foreshadowed rockabilly. This echo laden proto-rockabilly number should get more attention in rock history -
In August 1953, with their big hit still charting, the Davis Sisters left Wheeling after performing after midnight. Around 7:00 am near Cincinnati, a passing motorist fell asleep at the wheel, crashing head-on with the car in which Skeeter and Betty Davis were riding, killing Betty while Skeeter sustained serious head injuries. Stricken by grief, Betty's family clung to Skeeter. After her hospital release, Skeeter moved in with Betty's mother, Ollie, while still recovering from her injuries. She recounted in her autobiography that Ollie "took advantage of this tragic situation to suit her own ends," alleging she kept Skeeter sedated with drugs and sequestered her in the house, where she repeatedly played the girls' records. Once Skeeter recovered, Ollie could "hardly wait for her chance to re-create the Davis Sisters", was paired with Betty's older sister, Georgia, in an attempt to get a new version of the Davis Sisters out before paying audiences. Skeeter (now known professionally as Skeeter Davis) reluctantly agreed, and 6 months after the accident, she resumed singing in the duo with Georgia Davis.
The two recorded several albums, but with limited success, with Skeeter years later saying she didn't have the same chemistry with Georgia as she had with Betty. They toured with legends Hank Snow, Maybelle Carter, Eddy Arnold and Elvis Presley before Georgia quit the music business in 1957 to raise a family. A year later, Skeeter finally broke away from the control of the Davis family and went solo, becoming one of the first RCA artists to work under the guidance of master guitarist/producer Chet Atkins. In her autobiography, she would claim that she felt she had been brainwashed by Ollie and coerced into performing with Georgia.
Skeeter' solo recording career, under the guidance of Chet Atkins, progressed and she gained her first solo US hit in 1958 with ‘Lost To A Geisha Girl’, the female answer to the Hank Locklin hit ‘Geisha Girl’ (see post # 378). The following year, her co-written song ‘Set Him Free’ became Skeeter's first top 10 hit as a solo artist, getting to #5 in 1959.
Don't be fooled when listening to this "duo" - it's just Skeeter, she sings her own dubbed harmony, but the man who voices the "judge" is none other than producer Chet Atkins. This is a song that transports one back to a time when divorces (particularly in the South - and in Australia) were only granted at the behest of a judge, with juicy details
of affairs etc exposed to public condemnation or ridicule, or just good old fashioned voyeuristic entertainment -
Skeeter fulfilled one of her greatest ambitions in 1959, when she moved to Nashville and became a regular member of
the Grand Ole Opry, performing their for the next 40 years before ill-health finally overcame her.
'Am I That Easy To Forget' is a country standard first recorded by Carl Belew which reached # 9 in 1959. skeeter' cover again featured the multi-track "duo" sound. To achieve this, Skeeter had to record twice (at least) holding her tune in
2 keys, a skill she could do flawlessly. This also features the great Jimmy Day on steel guitar and went to # 11 in 1960 -
'Please Help Me, I'm Falling' was a 1960 song recorded by Hank Locklin and was his most successful, his second # 1
(see post # 379), spending 14 weeks at # 1, 9 months on the charts and crossed over to the Pop charts, peaking at # 8. Later in 1960, Skeeter had a hit with an answer song (a popular thing through the 1950's) entitled '(I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too', which peaked at # 2 for 3 weeks on also cracked the pop top 40 chart -
'Last Date' was a 1960 instrumental written and performed by pianist, Floyd Cramer. It exemplifies his famed "slip note" style of piano playing that Cramer made popular as part of Chet Atkin's A-Grade team of Nashville Sound musicians. It peaked at # 11 crossed over, reaching # 2 on the Pop charts (held out from # 1 by Elvis Presley's 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' which was recorded at the same studio (RCA Studio B), using the same piano! It's success led to the vocal version, written by Boudleaux Bryant, Floyd Cramer, and Skeeter Davis. Released as a single in December 1960 from
the album 'Here's The Answer' (even though it's not really an "answer" song as such), it reached #4 in 1961.
The sad song (inevitable given the flavour of Cramer's instrumental), in typical traditional country music style, it describes a situation so many encounter in real life (yep - I've been there too) -
I'll be back tomorrow with just one song - but a song that had a huge influence, not only on country music but on the pop sound of the sixties and even has an on-going influence to this day. It also resulted in ensuring Skeeter's spot on our history of country greats.
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What do Connie Smith, Lou Reed, Dolly Parton and Lana Del Rey all have in common (besides having successful music careers)? Read on.
Skeeter Davis quickly became one of country music's biggest female stars, a major rival to Kitty Wells (see posts # 238-239) and Patsy Cline (see post # 387-389). As 1961 dawned, Skeeter released her album "Here’s The Answer", featuring cover versions of country hits, with Skeeter singing the answer songs. She breathed life, meaning and emotion into the songs, showcasing her ability to interpret a song. So did the two hit singles she released during 1961. 'When The Hands You’re Holding Now', reaching # 11 and 'Optimistic', reaching # 10. Skeeter’s partnership with Chet Atkins was proving fruitful.
The Chet Atkins and Skeeter Davis partnership were responsible for another trio of hits during 1962 - 'Where I Ought
To Be' reached # 9 but the followup 'The Little Music Box' stalled at just # 22, before Skeeter returned with by far the biggest and most important hit of her career. Like Cline, Davis' records crossed over frequently to the pop music charts. Skeeter's 1963 release 'The End of the World' was a multi-chart phenomenal international smash for her and remains one of the best remembered country or pop songs of that era, indeed undergoing a revival in modern pop culture.
'The End Of The World', Skeeter's signature song, was the best example of the new countrypolitan sound, which combined country with pop stylings. It introduced Skeeter to a much wider audience. The song that dealt with abject despair over a lost love, asking how the world around her could just continue as normal when her own world had just fallen completely apart. This is the perfect subject and emotion that real country music tackles head on. But most people who weren’t fans of country music normally wouldn’t have listened to a heartbreaking song about loss and despair, delivered with honesty and emotion. However, the way Chet Atkins and Skeeter recorded the song was an absolute game-changer. They added swathes of lush strings along with a touch of crying subtle pedal steel guitar, which defused the despairing nature of the song, and complemented Skeeter’s soul-baring vocals, delivered in 2 different keys (B flat and B flat major). The result was a wistful pop-country song that may have been ignored by die-hard traditionalists but found a far wider audience. It remains a classic song of its era -
Not only did 'The End Of The World' reach # 2 in both the Country and Pop charts, it topped the Adult Contemporary chart and also reached # 4 in the US R&B chart - the only song ever to be a top 5 hit in all 4 charts. Skeeter had crossed over, finding a whole new audience within pop and R&B audiences - and the song had a profound influence on pop music, with long established stars such as Connie Francis and Petula Clark, amongst a host of others, being clearly influenced by this new sound - and this influence persisted through the sixties, even with the Motown Sound, but most particularly with Lou Reed who was obsessed with the song and used it in creating his sound.
All this resulted in cries of sellout from some of her country fans - even more so after she commenced a nationwide tour with a young up and coming British blues rock group called "The Rolling Stones". but overall, it seemed Skeeter could do no wrong. She continued to regularly perform at the Grand Ole Opry (it was common for chart topping artists to reduce their Opry appearances in favour of concert tours) and reassured her fans she was "still country at heart". Nevertheless, in addition to its direct influence on pop music, the song led to a new country pop sound in country music. Lynette Lynn and Dolly Party both acknowledged the 'The End of the World' as having a major influence on their sound.
Years later, 'The End of the World' was played at Chet Atkins's funeral in an instrumental by Marty Stuart. The song was also played at Skeeter Davis' own funeral at the country music motherchurch, the Ryman Auditorium.
The song has been covered many times since - too numerous to mention, and remains an influence even to this day.
'The End of the World' has been acknowledged as a major influence by singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, naming it
among her favorite recordings of all time (just as Lou Reed had). It featured prominently in the 2015 video game
"Fallout 4" (appropriate given the video game is about nuclear armargeddon) and the song has been currently
playing on the trailor for the up-coming Marvel movie "Eternals" -
Although Skeeter never found another hit that reached the great night of 'The End of the World', she still had a lot more to her career - which we will look at tomorrow.
Skeeter Davis quickly became one of country music's biggest female stars, a major rival to Kitty Wells (see posts # 238-239) and Patsy Cline (see post # 387-389). As 1961 dawned, Skeeter released her album "Here’s The Answer", featuring cover versions of country hits, with Skeeter singing the answer songs. She breathed life, meaning and emotion into the songs, showcasing her ability to interpret a song. So did the two hit singles she released during 1961. 'When The Hands You’re Holding Now', reaching # 11 and 'Optimistic', reaching # 10. Skeeter’s partnership with Chet Atkins was proving fruitful.
The Chet Atkins and Skeeter Davis partnership were responsible for another trio of hits during 1962 - 'Where I Ought
To Be' reached # 9 but the followup 'The Little Music Box' stalled at just # 22, before Skeeter returned with by far the biggest and most important hit of her career. Like Cline, Davis' records crossed over frequently to the pop music charts. Skeeter's 1963 release 'The End of the World' was a multi-chart phenomenal international smash for her and remains one of the best remembered country or pop songs of that era, indeed undergoing a revival in modern pop culture.
'The End Of The World', Skeeter's signature song, was the best example of the new countrypolitan sound, which combined country with pop stylings. It introduced Skeeter to a much wider audience. The song that dealt with abject despair over a lost love, asking how the world around her could just continue as normal when her own world had just fallen completely apart. This is the perfect subject and emotion that real country music tackles head on. But most people who weren’t fans of country music normally wouldn’t have listened to a heartbreaking song about loss and despair, delivered with honesty and emotion. However, the way Chet Atkins and Skeeter recorded the song was an absolute game-changer. They added swathes of lush strings along with a touch of crying subtle pedal steel guitar, which defused the despairing nature of the song, and complemented Skeeter’s soul-baring vocals, delivered in 2 different keys (B flat and B flat major). The result was a wistful pop-country song that may have been ignored by die-hard traditionalists but found a far wider audience. It remains a classic song of its era -
Not only did 'The End Of The World' reach # 2 in both the Country and Pop charts, it topped the Adult Contemporary chart and also reached # 4 in the US R&B chart - the only song ever to be a top 5 hit in all 4 charts. Skeeter had crossed over, finding a whole new audience within pop and R&B audiences - and the song had a profound influence on pop music, with long established stars such as Connie Francis and Petula Clark, amongst a host of others, being clearly influenced by this new sound - and this influence persisted through the sixties, even with the Motown Sound, but most particularly with Lou Reed who was obsessed with the song and used it in creating his sound.
All this resulted in cries of sellout from some of her country fans - even more so after she commenced a nationwide tour with a young up and coming British blues rock group called "The Rolling Stones". but overall, it seemed Skeeter could do no wrong. She continued to regularly perform at the Grand Ole Opry (it was common for chart topping artists to reduce their Opry appearances in favour of concert tours) and reassured her fans she was "still country at heart". Nevertheless, in addition to its direct influence on pop music, the song led to a new country pop sound in country music. Lynette Lynn and Dolly Party both acknowledged the 'The End of the World' as having a major influence on their sound.
Years later, 'The End of the World' was played at Chet Atkins's funeral in an instrumental by Marty Stuart. The song was also played at Skeeter Davis' own funeral at the country music motherchurch, the Ryman Auditorium.
The song has been covered many times since - too numerous to mention, and remains an influence even to this day.
'The End of the World' has been acknowledged as a major influence by singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, naming it
among her favorite recordings of all time (just as Lou Reed had). It featured prominently in the 2015 video game
"Fallout 4" (appropriate given the video game is about nuclear armargeddon) and the song has been currently
playing on the trailor for the up-coming Marvel movie "Eternals" -
Although Skeeter never found another hit that reached the great night of 'The End of the World', she still had a lot more to her career - which we will look at tomorrow.
After the huge success of 'The End Of The World', Skeeter Davis went on to tour and perform with such a diverse mixture of musical acts and genres as the Rolling Stones, Duke Ellington, Bobby Bare, George Hamilton IV and Porter Wagoner.
A cover of Gerry Goffin and Carol King’s 'I Can’t Stay Mad at You', gave Skeeter another crossover hit in 1963. Betraying its pop country sound (more pop than country) it "only" reached # 14 on the Country chart, but went up to # 7 on the pop chart and higher still to # 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
'I Can't Stay Mad At You' was another release that set so much of the sound of female pop in the sixties, including the British pop sound of Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black (it's barely country at all, despite Chet Atkins producing it), so it's appropriate the video clips here mostly feature skinny legged models and miniskirts of "swinging London" of the sixties (and Jean Shrimpton's famous appearance at the 1965 Victoria Derby at Flemington) -
'Gonna Get Along Without You Now' was a pop song obscurely recorded by Roy Hogsed in 1951, but the first hit version, recorded by Teresa Brewer in a Swing style with big band backing, reached # 25 on the pop charts in 1952. It was the
14 and 11 y.o. sisters, "Patience and Prudence" that recorded the definitive version of the song, with their distinctive harmony, in 1956, reaching # 11. This is considered the benchmark version, by which all others are judged, due to the intimate harmony of the Sisters. This version brightened the melody and later artists followed this version.
Two other versions hit the charts in 1964, the first by Tracey Dey, then Skeeter Davis. Dey's version was done in a style emulating the "Wall of Sound", which was popular with girl groups at the time. But it was Skeeter's version that reached the Top 10, and is regarded as "the" cover version - given that Skeeter had by this time already divorced two worthless husbands - the second had openly admitted he only married her for her money - she probably related well to the lyrics!
Where the "Patience and Prudence" version has an orchestral backing, the Davis version has a pop band backing of electronic organ, bass and drums, with violin and backup singers - again barely country. However it reached # 8 in
the country chart and # 15 in the Adult Contemporary chart in 1964. The slideshow here pays tribute to "Patience
and Prudence" as well as Skeeter -
'Fuel to the Flame' was written by a young up and coming singer-songwriter, Dolly Parton with her uncle, Bill Owens. Along with the success of another co-wrote song, 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow', it helped to establish Parton's reputation
as a songwriter, not just a singer, leading to a her signing a recording contract with Monument Records.
'Fuel to the Flame' was recorded in 1966 but wasn't released until nearly a year later, in 1967. Produced by Felton Jarvis it became Davis' first major hit in 2 years, reaching # 11. The song was later issued on Skeeter's studio album, "What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)". Parton recorded a version of the song herself and included it on her debut album "Hello, I'm Dolly" -
Continuing with Skeeter's songs targeting the adult audience, and increasingly turning away from pop to her country roots, 'What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)' reached # 5, Skeeter's first top 10 hit in 3 years. The song was eventually released onto a studio album of the same name. It also ushered in another change in Skeeter's music, with adult themed songs, with a more "mature" sound aimed squarely at the adult market, leaving behind the youth market themes of young romantic love - by now most youth market been seduced by the pop-rock of the "British pop-beat invasion", spearheaded by The Beatles.
The juxtaposition of those ultra-poppy riffs and the brutal takedown of the protagonist is striking. As to the answer to the question posed by the song title - well, I ain't telling you my requirements . You can figure out your own. -
Skeeter toured extensively in the 60s and 70s, not only throughout the USA and Canada but also to Europe and the Far East, where she was very popular. She played all the major US television network shows, including regular appearances with jazz legend Duke Ellington and also toured with the Rolling Stones. Her recording career slowed down in the 1970's, with her last top 10 hit ‘I’m A Lover (Not A Fighter)’, written and produced by Ronny Light. Released as from the album
"A Place in the Country", reached #9 in 1970. What's notable here is the repeated naming of Cassius Clay in the lyrics -
3 years after he had publicly changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Thus the lyrics serve as an historical reminder of the resistance at that time (particularly the South) to the use of the "draft-dodger" Ali's new name. Apart from that, it has areally good solid country backing sound, with the pop elements finally mostly removed -
Skeeter's last album to chart was 1973's "I Can’t Believe That It’s All Over". Sadly, it was all over for Skeeter Davis as far as chart success was concerned. She later married Joey Spampinato of rock band NRBQ. Davis became something of a rebel after the break-up of her second marriage. She settled in a colonial-style mansion set in several hundred acres in Brentwood, Tennessee, and surrounded herself with dogs, Siamese cats, a dove in a gilded cage and even an ocelot named Fred. Her extreme religious beliefs saw her refusing to appear in places that sold intoxicating drinks. She even stopped growing tobacco on her farm, giving the reason for both actions: ‘As a Christian, I think it’s harmful to my body’.
Skeeter released 31 studio albums, 4 tribute albums, 5 collaborative albums, 15 compilations and 57 singles during
her long career. She had one of the greatest and influential hits of the 1960's with 'The End Of The World'. She battled breast cancer for the last 16 years of her life but continued to play live gigs, including the Grand Ole Opry when her
health allowed, sometimes battling intense pain, right up until she finally succumbed to cancer in 2004, aged 73. That day, country music lost not just a great, but a musical pioneer, who had played a pivotal part in changing country and
pop music history. Not only did Skeeter Davis pioneer the countrypolitan sound, but influenced a generation (or even generations) of female pop and country singers right up to Lana Del Rey.
Next time I return with my history it'll be about a still living artist who became one of country music's greatest ever
song-writers, providing big hits to many artists for over 50 years - and could sing a bit too, managing to achieve more than a few hits of his own.
A cover of Gerry Goffin and Carol King’s 'I Can’t Stay Mad at You', gave Skeeter another crossover hit in 1963. Betraying its pop country sound (more pop than country) it "only" reached # 14 on the Country chart, but went up to # 7 on the pop chart and higher still to # 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
'I Can't Stay Mad At You' was another release that set so much of the sound of female pop in the sixties, including the British pop sound of Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black (it's barely country at all, despite Chet Atkins producing it), so it's appropriate the video clips here mostly feature skinny legged models and miniskirts of "swinging London" of the sixties (and Jean Shrimpton's famous appearance at the 1965 Victoria Derby at Flemington) -
'Gonna Get Along Without You Now' was a pop song obscurely recorded by Roy Hogsed in 1951, but the first hit version, recorded by Teresa Brewer in a Swing style with big band backing, reached # 25 on the pop charts in 1952. It was the
14 and 11 y.o. sisters, "Patience and Prudence" that recorded the definitive version of the song, with their distinctive harmony, in 1956, reaching # 11. This is considered the benchmark version, by which all others are judged, due to the intimate harmony of the Sisters. This version brightened the melody and later artists followed this version.
Two other versions hit the charts in 1964, the first by Tracey Dey, then Skeeter Davis. Dey's version was done in a style emulating the "Wall of Sound", which was popular with girl groups at the time. But it was Skeeter's version that reached the Top 10, and is regarded as "the" cover version - given that Skeeter had by this time already divorced two worthless husbands - the second had openly admitted he only married her for her money - she probably related well to the lyrics!
Where the "Patience and Prudence" version has an orchestral backing, the Davis version has a pop band backing of electronic organ, bass and drums, with violin and backup singers - again barely country. However it reached # 8 in
the country chart and # 15 in the Adult Contemporary chart in 1964. The slideshow here pays tribute to "Patience
and Prudence" as well as Skeeter -
'Fuel to the Flame' was written by a young up and coming singer-songwriter, Dolly Parton with her uncle, Bill Owens. Along with the success of another co-wrote song, 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow', it helped to establish Parton's reputation
as a songwriter, not just a singer, leading to a her signing a recording contract with Monument Records.
'Fuel to the Flame' was recorded in 1966 but wasn't released until nearly a year later, in 1967. Produced by Felton Jarvis it became Davis' first major hit in 2 years, reaching # 11. The song was later issued on Skeeter's studio album, "What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)". Parton recorded a version of the song herself and included it on her debut album "Hello, I'm Dolly" -
Continuing with Skeeter's songs targeting the adult audience, and increasingly turning away from pop to her country roots, 'What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)' reached # 5, Skeeter's first top 10 hit in 3 years. The song was eventually released onto a studio album of the same name. It also ushered in another change in Skeeter's music, with adult themed songs, with a more "mature" sound aimed squarely at the adult market, leaving behind the youth market themes of young romantic love - by now most youth market been seduced by the pop-rock of the "British pop-beat invasion", spearheaded by The Beatles.
The juxtaposition of those ultra-poppy riffs and the brutal takedown of the protagonist is striking. As to the answer to the question posed by the song title - well, I ain't telling you my requirements . You can figure out your own. -
Skeeter toured extensively in the 60s and 70s, not only throughout the USA and Canada but also to Europe and the Far East, where she was very popular. She played all the major US television network shows, including regular appearances with jazz legend Duke Ellington and also toured with the Rolling Stones. Her recording career slowed down in the 1970's, with her last top 10 hit ‘I’m A Lover (Not A Fighter)’, written and produced by Ronny Light. Released as from the album
"A Place in the Country", reached #9 in 1970. What's notable here is the repeated naming of Cassius Clay in the lyrics -
3 years after he had publicly changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Thus the lyrics serve as an historical reminder of the resistance at that time (particularly the South) to the use of the "draft-dodger" Ali's new name. Apart from that, it has areally good solid country backing sound, with the pop elements finally mostly removed -
Skeeter's last album to chart was 1973's "I Can’t Believe That It’s All Over". Sadly, it was all over for Skeeter Davis as far as chart success was concerned. She later married Joey Spampinato of rock band NRBQ. Davis became something of a rebel after the break-up of her second marriage. She settled in a colonial-style mansion set in several hundred acres in Brentwood, Tennessee, and surrounded herself with dogs, Siamese cats, a dove in a gilded cage and even an ocelot named Fred. Her extreme religious beliefs saw her refusing to appear in places that sold intoxicating drinks. She even stopped growing tobacco on her farm, giving the reason for both actions: ‘As a Christian, I think it’s harmful to my body’.
Skeeter released 31 studio albums, 4 tribute albums, 5 collaborative albums, 15 compilations and 57 singles during
her long career. She had one of the greatest and influential hits of the 1960's with 'The End Of The World'. She battled breast cancer for the last 16 years of her life but continued to play live gigs, including the Grand Ole Opry when her
health allowed, sometimes battling intense pain, right up until she finally succumbed to cancer in 2004, aged 73. That day, country music lost not just a great, but a musical pioneer, who had played a pivotal part in changing country and
pop music history. Not only did Skeeter Davis pioneer the countrypolitan sound, but influenced a generation (or even generations) of female pop and country singers right up to Lana Del Rey.
Next time I return with my history it'll be about a still living artist who became one of country music's greatest ever
song-writers, providing big hits to many artists for over 50 years - and could sing a bit too, managing to achieve more than a few hits of his own.
We now welcome an artist who (for a change from our usual), didn't grow up dirt poor in the country, but was a (at
least comparatively) well-off, well educated city boy - but one with a vivid imagination and a country "soul". Known as "Whisperin' Bill" to generations of fans, he is the only songwriter in country music history to have songs on the charts
in each of the past 7 - yes, 7 - consecutive decades. Moreover, his multi-genre success extends far beyond the country with diverse artists like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Dean Martin, and Elvis Costello having recorded his songs. But in addition to providing a host of chart-topping hits for other artists, and despite his limited vocal range and strength, he developed his own distinctive singing technique, resulting in him also having major chart-topping success as a singer in his own right.
One of the most successful songwriters in country music history, Bill Anderson earned the nickname "Whisperin Bill" for his gentle, breathy, airy vocal style and occasional spoken narrations. Born in Columbia, South Carolina on 1 Nov 1937, as a child his family moved to Atlanta where his father ran his own insurance business. He inherited his legendary wit from his mother Lib, who called him “just another ‘Bill’ that came on the first of the month". He learned music from his paternal grandparents, both musicians - his grandpa played the fiddle and grandma the guitar. As a child, Bill saved enough money from his paper-boy route to purchase his first guitar – “a cheap flat-top model with the strings about an inch above the fret board” – and wrote his first song, 'Carry Me to My Texas Home' at age 10, proving he had a good imagination - at the time, he’d never been west of Georgia.
Anderson studied journalism at the University of Georgia and worked his way through school as a radio DJ, during which time he first tried his hand at songwriting and singing. His composition 'City Lights' written aged just 19, was recorded
by Ray Price in 1958 and became a huge hit, 13 weeks at # 1. Anderson took full advantage of his big break, moving to Nashville and landing a record contract of his own with Decca. His own first chart hit came with 1959's 'That's What It's Like to Be Lonesome' and he had his first top 10 hit (# 7) in 1960 'Tip of My Fingers', which fully challenged his vocal range, but showed his ability to convey warmth and emotion - and it ironically included the lyrics - ".. With soft words I whispered..." on the second line, unwittingly defining the singing style he became famous for -
This Anderson written song (all his songs were self-penned) also had a strong afterlife, with Roy Clark (1963), Eddy Arnold (1966), Anita Perras (1989) and Steve Wariner (1991) all taking it back to the top 10 - Anderson earned most
of his fortune through song-writing royalties from all the hits he wrote for others.
Anderson followed this up with another 1960 top 10 hit, 'Walk Out Backwards, produced at Decca by Owen Bradley (Chet Atkins chief Nashville Sound rival, though a personal friend) who would serve as Anderson's producer for years to come. Anderson was sitting at the table after dinner trying to think of a song. His then wife was taking out the trash and had to turn around and go out backwards ... and just out of that, he wrote another hit song -
'Po' Folks', a top 10 1961 hit, is now considered among Anderson's signature songs. Bobby Moore of "Wide Open Country" called it a "legendary single that spoke for all of the Southern baby boomers raised with numerous siblings in dirt-poor sharecropping families" (though Anderson himself grew up comfortably in Atlanta). The song inspired the name for the "Po' Folks" restaurant chain that still exists in a few southern states. 'Po’ Folks' helped establish Anderson as both a singer and a songwriter with an eye for detail, an ear for melody and a sense of humour -
"... My daddy was a farmer but all he ever raised was us / Dug a forty foot well, struck thirty six gallons of dust” -
Now for a song not to my taste, but still fascinating for its historical context and, being a big hit, what is says about the South back at the time. 'Mama Sang a Song' was Anderson’s first #1 hit (apart from others written by Anderson but recorded by others). The song tells a story about a childhood that Anderson never had (as per above, he wasn't raised poor), but plenty other "Bible Belt" (it ain't called that for nothing- especially back then) Southerners did, growing up
in families poor in material things but rich in faith, family and love of country and gospel music.
Appropriately, the song is peppered with gospel hymn titles and features a backing choir that incorporates actual gospel hymns throughout the song. Several artists have covered the song since, but the original endured, staying # 1 for 7 weeks in 1962 (thus also showing how much society has changed since then, as nothing like this would be released,
let alone chart, in the mainstream music market today) -
The 1963 single 'Still' gave Anderson his second # 1 in 1963 and was a crossover success, reaching # 8 on the pop and # 3 on the Adult Contemporary charts. Bing Crosby recorded his own version of the Anderson-penned song that same year. 'Still' has a sound resting somewhere between doo-wop pop and country. It established Anderson as a long-term power player in country and contemporary music. This break-up song is mostly spoken in the two verses, rather than sung, except for the repeated refrains, that are done with the famed Nashville Sound female chorus, The Anita Kerr Singers
with Floyd Cramer on piano - an clever arrangement that suited Anderson's vocal range while using the choir to deliver the part outside his range -
Having now seen Bill Anderson established as a major player, in both song-writing and singing by 1963, tomorrow will explore how his music changed with the times as his career progressed through the sixties.
least comparatively) well-off, well educated city boy - but one with a vivid imagination and a country "soul". Known as "Whisperin' Bill" to generations of fans, he is the only songwriter in country music history to have songs on the charts
in each of the past 7 - yes, 7 - consecutive decades. Moreover, his multi-genre success extends far beyond the country with diverse artists like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Dean Martin, and Elvis Costello having recorded his songs. But in addition to providing a host of chart-topping hits for other artists, and despite his limited vocal range and strength, he developed his own distinctive singing technique, resulting in him also having major chart-topping success as a singer in his own right.
One of the most successful songwriters in country music history, Bill Anderson earned the nickname "Whisperin Bill" for his gentle, breathy, airy vocal style and occasional spoken narrations. Born in Columbia, South Carolina on 1 Nov 1937, as a child his family moved to Atlanta where his father ran his own insurance business. He inherited his legendary wit from his mother Lib, who called him “just another ‘Bill’ that came on the first of the month". He learned music from his paternal grandparents, both musicians - his grandpa played the fiddle and grandma the guitar. As a child, Bill saved enough money from his paper-boy route to purchase his first guitar – “a cheap flat-top model with the strings about an inch above the fret board” – and wrote his first song, 'Carry Me to My Texas Home' at age 10, proving he had a good imagination - at the time, he’d never been west of Georgia.
Anderson studied journalism at the University of Georgia and worked his way through school as a radio DJ, during which time he first tried his hand at songwriting and singing. His composition 'City Lights' written aged just 19, was recorded
by Ray Price in 1958 and became a huge hit, 13 weeks at # 1. Anderson took full advantage of his big break, moving to Nashville and landing a record contract of his own with Decca. His own first chart hit came with 1959's 'That's What It's Like to Be Lonesome' and he had his first top 10 hit (# 7) in 1960 'Tip of My Fingers', which fully challenged his vocal range, but showed his ability to convey warmth and emotion - and it ironically included the lyrics - ".. With soft words I whispered..." on the second line, unwittingly defining the singing style he became famous for -
This Anderson written song (all his songs were self-penned) also had a strong afterlife, with Roy Clark (1963), Eddy Arnold (1966), Anita Perras (1989) and Steve Wariner (1991) all taking it back to the top 10 - Anderson earned most
of his fortune through song-writing royalties from all the hits he wrote for others.
Anderson followed this up with another 1960 top 10 hit, 'Walk Out Backwards, produced at Decca by Owen Bradley (Chet Atkins chief Nashville Sound rival, though a personal friend) who would serve as Anderson's producer for years to come. Anderson was sitting at the table after dinner trying to think of a song. His then wife was taking out the trash and had to turn around and go out backwards ... and just out of that, he wrote another hit song -
'Po' Folks', a top 10 1961 hit, is now considered among Anderson's signature songs. Bobby Moore of "Wide Open Country" called it a "legendary single that spoke for all of the Southern baby boomers raised with numerous siblings in dirt-poor sharecropping families" (though Anderson himself grew up comfortably in Atlanta). The song inspired the name for the "Po' Folks" restaurant chain that still exists in a few southern states. 'Po’ Folks' helped establish Anderson as both a singer and a songwriter with an eye for detail, an ear for melody and a sense of humour -
"... My daddy was a farmer but all he ever raised was us / Dug a forty foot well, struck thirty six gallons of dust” -
Now for a song not to my taste, but still fascinating for its historical context and, being a big hit, what is says about the South back at the time. 'Mama Sang a Song' was Anderson’s first #1 hit (apart from others written by Anderson but recorded by others). The song tells a story about a childhood that Anderson never had (as per above, he wasn't raised poor), but plenty other "Bible Belt" (it ain't called that for nothing- especially back then) Southerners did, growing up
in families poor in material things but rich in faith, family and love of country and gospel music.
Appropriately, the song is peppered with gospel hymn titles and features a backing choir that incorporates actual gospel hymns throughout the song. Several artists have covered the song since, but the original endured, staying # 1 for 7 weeks in 1962 (thus also showing how much society has changed since then, as nothing like this would be released,
let alone chart, in the mainstream music market today) -
The 1963 single 'Still' gave Anderson his second # 1 in 1963 and was a crossover success, reaching # 8 on the pop and # 3 on the Adult Contemporary charts. Bing Crosby recorded his own version of the Anderson-penned song that same year. 'Still' has a sound resting somewhere between doo-wop pop and country. It established Anderson as a long-term power player in country and contemporary music. This break-up song is mostly spoken in the two verses, rather than sung, except for the repeated refrains, that are done with the famed Nashville Sound female chorus, The Anita Kerr Singers
with Floyd Cramer on piano - an clever arrangement that suited Anderson's vocal range while using the choir to deliver the part outside his range -
Having now seen Bill Anderson established as a major player, in both song-writing and singing by 1963, tomorrow will explore how his music changed with the times as his career progressed through the sixties.
The success of 'Still' further elevated Anderson's recording career. This included making national TV appearances on shows such as American Bandstand, where he performed his follow-up crossover hit '8×10', which reached # 2 (but hasn't aged as well as many of his other hits). He also won awards from several major music publications including Billboard, Cashbox and Music Reporter. His natural quick wit and easy going charm landed him his own nationally syndicated TV show, "The Bill Anderson Show", featuring his backing band, 'The Po' Boys', as his run of self-penned
hits (in addition to the hits he provided for other artists) continued his sustained success in the charts.
Now back to his music - and you may notice as we move through a definite change in his backing music sound, due to
a big outside (of Nashville) influence that ran through country music from the early to mid-sixties - but I won't go into detail on that until I get to my nest artist.
'Three AM', a # 8 hit from the 1964 album "Showcase", with Floyd Cramer on piano, The Jordanaires providing the chorus, all under producer Owen Bradley. Here, from a writer who put out some of the most sentimental, mushy long songs, along with many bittersweet break-up and heartache songs, we have a dark song of abject despair (maybe where the phrase "Nothing good happens after 3AM" originated?). Dylan mentions this song (and its writer) in his doco "Don't Look Back" -
'Bright Lights and Country Music' is a straight out honky tonk hit from 1965 with a traditional theme of hitting the bars and the bottle - in order to forget -
"... A table by the bandstand, a bottle filled with wine / Honky tonks were made for men with women on their minds
Nothing else can take away this loneliness of mine / Quite like bright lights and country music ..."
'I Get The Fever' from the 1966 album "I Love You Drops" (also the title of a # 4 sentimental hit from the album) became Anderson's third # 1 hit. Another sticking to traditional country themes, this uptempo number (at least for Whisperin Bill) mixes heartbreak with the wandering urge of hitting the highway as a ramblin' man -
"... I get the fever to pack and leave here and I think maybe I'll do just that tomorrow /
This town's too full of mem'ries of cruel love / Everywhere I turn there's pain and sorrow ..."
'Wild Weekend' went to # 2 (# 1 in Canada) in 1968, this time with a song without heartbreak, break-up or any
other hint of sadness. So how did this (then) suggestive song succeed to the extent it reached # 1 with a mostly conservative southern audience? Anderson found a way ... at the end of the so song -
"... Told the boss I was going to my mother's told mama I was gonna see a friend
Don't want no one to know I'm slippin' out of town on a wild weekend ...
With the pretty little blond haired blue eyed darling gonna have a wild weekend ..."
Anderson's first marriage busted up in 1969 and decades later, in 2016, 6 years after his ex had passed away, he said in an interview that she had never really understood the requirements of having a highly successful music career, with it's travelling, late nights and socialising etc. That very same year, Anderson wrote a song without any sentiment but heavy on bitterness and defiance - 'My Life (Throw It Away If I Want To', which yet again topped the charts. Not a few consider this his best song -
"You don't understand the pattern of my life because my life has got no pattern
You don't see and you can't feel the wind / That's blowing at my back and saying move boy
You think this burning fever in my heart is just a folly / And I'm throwin' away my happiness by leaving you
Well it's my life, throw it away if I want to..."
Tomorrow will continue our looking at Whisperin Bill's music as we traverse from the seventies right up to now - and also have a quick look at his his career outside of music
hits (in addition to the hits he provided for other artists) continued his sustained success in the charts.
Now back to his music - and you may notice as we move through a definite change in his backing music sound, due to
a big outside (of Nashville) influence that ran through country music from the early to mid-sixties - but I won't go into detail on that until I get to my nest artist.
'Three AM', a # 8 hit from the 1964 album "Showcase", with Floyd Cramer on piano, The Jordanaires providing the chorus, all under producer Owen Bradley. Here, from a writer who put out some of the most sentimental, mushy long songs, along with many bittersweet break-up and heartache songs, we have a dark song of abject despair (maybe where the phrase "Nothing good happens after 3AM" originated?). Dylan mentions this song (and its writer) in his doco "Don't Look Back" -
'Bright Lights and Country Music' is a straight out honky tonk hit from 1965 with a traditional theme of hitting the bars and the bottle - in order to forget -
"... A table by the bandstand, a bottle filled with wine / Honky tonks were made for men with women on their minds
Nothing else can take away this loneliness of mine / Quite like bright lights and country music ..."
'I Get The Fever' from the 1966 album "I Love You Drops" (also the title of a # 4 sentimental hit from the album) became Anderson's third # 1 hit. Another sticking to traditional country themes, this uptempo number (at least for Whisperin Bill) mixes heartbreak with the wandering urge of hitting the highway as a ramblin' man -
"... I get the fever to pack and leave here and I think maybe I'll do just that tomorrow /
This town's too full of mem'ries of cruel love / Everywhere I turn there's pain and sorrow ..."
'Wild Weekend' went to # 2 (# 1 in Canada) in 1968, this time with a song without heartbreak, break-up or any
other hint of sadness. So how did this (then) suggestive song succeed to the extent it reached # 1 with a mostly conservative southern audience? Anderson found a way ... at the end of the so song -
"... Told the boss I was going to my mother's told mama I was gonna see a friend
Don't want no one to know I'm slippin' out of town on a wild weekend ...
With the pretty little blond haired blue eyed darling gonna have a wild weekend ..."
Anderson's first marriage busted up in 1969 and decades later, in 2016, 6 years after his ex had passed away, he said in an interview that she had never really understood the requirements of having a highly successful music career, with it's travelling, late nights and socialising etc. That very same year, Anderson wrote a song without any sentiment but heavy on bitterness and defiance - 'My Life (Throw It Away If I Want To', which yet again topped the charts. Not a few consider this his best song -
"You don't understand the pattern of my life because my life has got no pattern
You don't see and you can't feel the wind / That's blowing at my back and saying move boy
You think this burning fever in my heart is just a folly / And I'm throwin' away my happiness by leaving you
Well it's my life, throw it away if I want to..."
Tomorrow will continue our looking at Whisperin Bill's music as we traverse from the seventies right up to now - and also have a quick look at his his career outside of music
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