COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS*
*
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday March 6th, 2014
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.countrymusicclassics.com
*
STORY BEHIND THE SONG*
*
Ronnie Milsap's 1980 number one, "Why Don't You Spend The Night" was a track in
his "Milsap Magic," album before being released as a single.
The album tracks were also his first to be produced without his longtime record
producer Tom Collins. Instead the "Milsap Magic" album was produced by Rob
Galbraith - who later became manager of Milsap's music publishing companies.
Milsap's RCA Victor single "Why Don't You Spend The Night" came on the country
music charts January 12th, 1980 and was in the number one slot on March 22nd.
The song was written by Bob McDill and was Milsap's 25th charted song.*
*
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*
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: Have you heard anything about Willie Nelson and an I-tunes concert. I heard
it mentioned on the radio.
A: Willie Nelson will perform at the five day iTunes Festival March 11th
thru 15th in Austin, Texas.
Q: I heard that Loretta Lynn's home burned. Do you have any details?
A: A small fire broke out at Loretta's Hurricane Mills, Tennessee home last
week. The fire was reportedly started from a candle that ignited a chair. There
were no injuries and the fire was extinguished before emergency services
arrived.
Q: The radio guys mentioned Hank Williams Jr. and a Hunter Mountain
concert. Where is that?
A: Hank Williams Jr. has been added to the talent lineup for the 2014
Taste Of Country Music Festival at Hunter Mountain in New York June 13th thru
15th.
Q: I bought a copy of the Norma Jean record of "Jackson Ain't A Very Big
Town" back n 1967. My mom says some couple also had a hit record on that song.
Is that true?
A: The song was a number 21 hit for Johnny Duncan and June Stearns in 1968
after Norma Jean's number 38 chart record the previous year.
Q: The Johnny Paycheck record of "Someone To Give My Love To" is my
all-time favorite. Who is the girl singer on that record? Could it be Dolly
Parton? And do you know who wrote the song?
A: Jody Miller is the female voice on that record. The song was written by
Jerry Foster and Bill Rice.
Q: Porter Wagoner's "Satisfied Mind" is my favorite song. Do you know who
all had hit records on that song?
A: Artists who scored chart records with "Satisfied Mind" include Porter
Wagoner, Red Foley and Betty Foley, Jean Shepard, Roy Drusky, Bob Luman, and Con
Hunley.
^^^^^^^^^
Your comments, suggestions, gripes, etc. concerning this newsletter---are
welcome. Email *to: Classics@countrymusicclassics.com*
* ^^^^^^^^^^*
* NUMBER ONE ON THIS DATE:*
*1945*
/Im Losing My Mind Over You/ - Al Dexter *
*1953
/Kaw-Liga/* - Hank Williams*
*1961*
/Dont Worry/ - Marty Robbins *
*1969*
/To Make Love Sweeter for You/ - Jerry Lee Lewis *
*1977*
/Heart Healer/ - Mel Tillis *
*1985*
/Baby Bye Bye/ - Gary Morris*
^^^^^^^^^*
A T T E N T I O N: R A D I O S T A T I O N S:*
Our short form daily radio feature, *Story Behind The Song* is
*now available to radio stations.
NOT
AVAILABLE TO INTERNET STATIONS)
The feature is available at *no charge*.*
For information, email me at
*classics@countrymusicclassics.com*
*
^^^^^^^^^^*
*
GEORGE*
By: Jack Blanchard
The first time you meet George
and spend a few minutes with him,
you come away with conflicting impressions.
He's brilliant. He's almost got sincerity down pat.
He talks big money,
but he has scotch tape holding his glasses together,
and has to push his car to start it..
He knows a lot about everything.
He has some good sounding ideas.
He can create excitement and mistrust at the same time.
and the oddest part is this: You kinda like him.
His idea the day we met him was a chain of restaurants
called "Misty and Jack's Family Picnic".
We had the name value at that time,
and had been looking around for a way to exploit it.
Of course George had that all figured out ahead of time.
He knew what buttons to push.
The decor would have white trellises,
with artificial climbing vines, picket fences, flowers, etc..
He told us the seats should just be comfortable enough,
but not so comfortable that people would sit around all day
taking up tables.
He had invented a way to make pizza in a microwave
and have it come out just like oven baked.
Naturally I came up with my usual type of suggestions,
like a chicken place called "Chicken In A Casket".
We could serve them on their backs
in black cardboard caskets with a red lining.
We could have plastic toothpicks
made in the shape of little white crosses,
and stick them in the top of the chicken for decoration.
Unlike most mental cases, George had a sense of humor.
He got the jokes.
He had us set up a dinner party at our house
to meet a potential investor,
who just by accident was a psychiatrist.
A high profile local shrink.
The psychiatrist was nuts, too.
All through dinner he psychoanalyzed me in front of everybody.
He told me everything he thought I did wrong in my life,
and why.
He ruined the party
showing off his shrink ability at my expense.
I kept my cool for the sake of everybody else,
but as the guests were filing out the door,
I said to him:
"I bet you don't get invited back to many parties".
He was shocked,
and asked me why I would say something like that.
I told him how he had behaved,
and he said a real shrink thing to me.
He said: "You handle your hostilities well".
I felt like pulling his lower lip up over his head.
George was one of those loud talkers.
He'd be sitting with us at a restaurant table,
conversing at a level that could reach everybody in the room.
He was an actor playing to the back row.
He used a lot of phrases like:
My people...
My people are loyal...
We've leased the entire top floor for our offices, etc..
His office was a twenty year old Chevy.
There was a recently divorced waitress working in our club,
who talked a lot about marrying a rich guy.
She was going to find one, you just watch.
Goldie was money hungry a little more than most of us.
She could hear George talking about his people
and his big deals all the time.
A month later they were married
and moved into the most expensive penthouse in town.
The marriage lasted about a month,
until Goldie and the landlord realized
that the rent check was going to bounce.
George could discuss any subject like an expert.
I'm sure his IQ was off the chart,
but his IQ wasn't running the show.
I wanted brochures:
He knew the name of every fancy type font.
He sent what he called a rough contract to me in Nashville.
I took it to a friend, who was a law professor at Vanderbilt,
who said the contract was excellent legal work.
We didn't see George for a few years
and then one night he was on the Channel 9 News.
They interviewed him as a scientist
who had invented a coffee substitute.
I said to Misty, "I think that's Postum".
Another year or two, and there he was,
being interviewed on Channel 9 again.
He was wearing a white lab coat,
and was introduced as a local scientist
who had discovered a particle smaller than an atom!
They asked him how he had done it when nobody else could,
and he said something so stupid
I thought a hook would come out and pull him off.
He said: "Nobody else was looking for anything that small."
The reporter said, "That's amazing!"
I ran into that psychiatrist a while later
and asked if he knew what George was up to lately,
and he said: "He's a pathological liar".
Yeah, but we liked the liar better than the doctor.
Jack Blanchard*
*http:// - http:///www.jackandmisty.net - http://www.jackandmisty.net
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*
TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY*
compiled by Bill Morrison*
*
1905 - Bob Wills 1905-1975, born James Robert Wills, in Limestone County, Texas.
He would come to be known as /"The King of Western Swing." / *
*
*1909 - *Floyd "Salty" Holmes 1909-1970, of "The Prarie Ramblers" born
in Glasgow, Kentucky.*
*
1926 - A. J. Band and his /Barn Dance Team /appeared on the WSM Barn
Dance this evening. It would be their last appearance.
1928 - Don Stover 1928-1996, Bluegrass banjo, was born today
*
1934 - Red Simpson, Capitol Recording artist, songwriter, and guitarist, born in
Higley, Arizona. Red charted his first /hit single on Billboards Country
charts in 1966, with "Roll Truck Roll"/ written by Tommy Collins.*
*
1953 - Hank Williams topped the charts with "Kaw-Liga," almost two months after
his death.*
*
*1953 -* Tari Hensley Mercury recording artist, born Tari Hodges/
in Independence, Missouri.*
*
1954 - George Jones released "No Money In This Deal," b/w "You're In My Heart."
The single did not chart. *
*
1958 - Marty Robbins recorded "Kaw-liga"/ in Nashville. Hank Williams &
Fred Rose wrote the song, and the session was produced by Don Law. The session
personnel included: Marty Robbins-vocals & guitar; Grady Martin-guitar; Hillous
Butrum-guitar; Jack Pruett-guitar; James Farmer-steel guitar; Marvin
Hughes-piano; Floyd Chance-bass; Louis Dunn-drums. *
*
1961 - Ralph Mooney released "Moonshine," and "Release Me," (Instrumentals) in
1961. *
*
1964 - Skip Ewing, singer, songwriter, and guitarist born Donald Ralph
Ewing/ in Red Lands, California. *
*
1968 - Buck Owens' Capitol album "Best of Buck Owens"/ was certified gold
by the RIAA.*
*
1969 - Jerry Lee Lewis' single "To Make Love Sweeter for You"/ was #1 on
Billboard's Country charts. The song was written by Jerry Kennedy and Glenn
Sutton, and released on the Smash label. This was "The Killer's" /3rd
#1.*
*
1974 - Jim Stafford's MGM single "Spiders & Snakes" /was certified Gold by
you know who.*
*
1975 - Johnny Rivers' Imperial albums "A Touch of Gold Volume II"/ and
"Johnny Rivers' Golden Hits" /were both certified Gold by the RIAA
today.*
*
1976 - Emmylou Harris' first/ #1 single "Together Again"/ charted
1976.*
*
1976 - The Bellamy Brothers single "Let Your Love Flow/" debuted on
Billboard's Top 40 Chart.*
*
1980 - A big day for "The Red-Headed Stranger." /Willie Nelson's Columbia
album "Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson" /was certified Gold by the RIAA,
and his "Willie Nelson & Family Live" /album was certified Platinum.*
*
1981 - Dolly Parton's RCA Victor album "9 to 5 and Odd Jobs" /was certified
Gold by the RIAA.*
*
*1983 - *CMT, the Country Music Television network, broadcast their
first /program today.*
*
1990 Warner Records released Travis Tritt's first /album "Country Club."
/*
*
2000 - Scotty Moore - Elivis' first/ guitar player was inducted into the
R&RHOF.*
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html*>
^^^^^^^^^^*
*
*
VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock*
*
BILLY JOES LOST FINGERS.....AND BOUNCIN BETTYS*
In 1986 I started a television show, on CMT, called Stan Hitchcocks HEART TO
HEART. I felt the need for a show that would break up the steady stream of
videos, and one that would be a vehicle that would show the real human side of
the artists. The artists were all friends of mine so it was just friends sharing
some songs, stories, and picking a couple of flat tops. It was so simple and
real that people immediately took to it and started watching religiously. The
mail was just starting to pour in, and I could feel it beginning to work. I have
some great memories of those early CMT and Heart to Heart days; some real good
times spent with friends. . .
I was sitting under a shade tree just outside of Nashville one hot summer day in
1987, fingers kinda running over the strings of my old flat top guitar, talking
to my friend Billy Joe Shaver about songs, about lost romance, about how The
Road will wear you out, about . . . Billy, how the heck did you lose your
fingers, son? Billy Joe looked down at his right hand, stretched it out in front
of him and studied the two short stubs that was all that remained of his two
middle fingers. I got in an accident in a sawmill where I worked . . . I
remember how I realized when it happened, God, I know what Im supposed to be
doin . . . when they got cut off, I got down, gathered my fingers together and
took them over to the doctors office, to see if they could put them back on.
Doctor looked at em and said: Naw, man, they all mangled up from gettin hung in
the chain I remember there was a colored nurse there and she wanted them . . . I
asked her what in the world did she want em for? And she said: Aw, Im gonna put
em in a jar So my fingers are probably still sittin up on a shelf somewhere down
in Texas . . . .floatin' around in a jar of vinegar, or something. After I got
my fingers cut off I started playing the guitar and writing real hard, cause I
knew that was what I was supposed to be doing.
Yeah buddy, I reckon you did Billy Joe. Old Chunk Of Coal for John Anderson,
Honky Tonk Heroes, and a whole album full of songs that Waylon recorded, and
another one of my favorites, I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train. Sittin there,
kinda ruminating on Billy Joes lost fingers, I made a remark about how he and I
had seen a lot of strange things happen in this business of music, and ended the
thought with, And Billy Joe, we didnt come to town on a truck load of
watermelons, no sir, we been around some. Billy Joe glanced up at me and said,
Nope, it was a truck full of cantaloupes. I could see he was serious and asked
him what he was talking about, and here came another story: Well, I had left
Texas with about five dollars: I got as far as Memphis when I ran out of money
and a ride. I was hitchhikin on to Nashville when a man driving a truck full of
cantaloupes stopped and gave me a ride; I had to sit in the back with all them
melons. When I got to Nashville, I started knocking on doors on Music Row,
trying to talk to people about my songs and they all kept looking at each other
saying, Whats that smell? I smelled like a cantaloupe patch for a month after
that.
Billy Joe Shaver is a man who has lived some and survived to tell us about it in
his music. I love him cause hes real, and what you see is what you get with
Billy Joe. Thats what is so fascinating about this world of creative people,
yes, they have a special talent but inside they are just real folk, with real
stories to tell.
And on another day, sometime in 1986, I was in the RCA Records offices on Music
Row in Nashville talking with Randy Owen of Alabama; just remembering good
times, past experiences and where we came from. Randy was saying, Right out of
college, in the July heat, I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina which was the
proving ground for our group, Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry, John Vartanian and
myself, who later became the band Alabama. There was a place in Myrtle Beach
called The Bowrey, which I thought was totally unique when we found it and still
later when we left it. It was a bar that probably seated, at the most, three
hundred people: seat to seat. There was no dancing, and if you were caught
dancing, you were immediately escorted to the front door. Lets see, there were
waiters instead of waitresses, cause you had to be tough, there was Dont Cry
Joe, the singing, dancing bartender, Bouncin Betty, a three-hundred pound go-go
dancer; there was another girl I remember who was seven foot tall and also a
go-go dancer, and still another girl named April/May who danced from the ceiling
on chains. We were called Wild Country at the time and we played for tips. These
ladies, and some other girls that we could talk into it, collected our tips in a
P Pot: it was actually a real chamber pot that we passed around; people would
put in dimes, nickles, quarters, they even threw in some joints, yaknow, people
thinking we might want to participate. They put in just everything you could
imagine, from coupons to bottles of Canadian beer theyd smuggled in from Canada:
it was just amazing what they would put in. We had a lot of letters and notes
like, Im in room 901: now, think about it, theres nine million motel rooms in
Myrtle Beach . . . but above all the craziness, the people in charge let us play
whatever we wanted - just as long as we played something.
Randy stared off in space, out the window of the Music Row offices, remembering,
and smiling. He continued.
I told myself that by the time I was thirty years old, if something very
definite wasnt happening, in the group Alabama or whatever group I was playing
with, the name, whatever . . . if something wasnt happening, I would go back to
college, get my masters, possibly teach junior college and live on my farm
raising cattle. Thats what I wanted to do, but something happened just in the
nick of time . . . Yeah, Randy, I dont believe youre gonna get to do that, son,
I said with a laugh.
Randy kinda grinned, and then turned serious, Yeah, but I think its important
that people in the music business have other things to do . . . I mean, you
know, Ive had a great career, but if something happens to that, I believe theres
lots of other things I can do. I dont think you should punish yourself or the
public when it gets to where only fifty people come out to see you play, its
just like a baseball pitcher, there comes a time when that fast ball just dont
come in there no more . . . Im prepared for the future: if its not happening
then Ill just go back to Alabama, stay on my farm and raise cows.
Billy Joe and Randy are two of the special ones in a music business that can eat
you up and spit you out bout as quick as someone trying out my Hot Pepper Sauce
for the first time. They stayed the course and did it right.
*
Stan Hitchcock
*
^^^^^^^^^*
*
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:*
*
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith,
because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing
the same kind of sufferings. *
* 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV)*
^^^^^^^^*
*
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