COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS*
*
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday January 23rd, 2014
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.countrymusicclassics.com
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STORY BEHIND THE SONG*
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According to Willie Nelson - he and Leon Russell's recording of "Heartbreak
Hotel," was Leon's idea.
Willie commented, "We were recording tracks for our "One For The Road" album at
Leon's place in Los Angeles and we were just going from one song right into
another and wound up recording a bunch of tracks. But it was Leon's idea to
record "Heartbreak Hotel." I had known the song for quite a while, because the
co-writer - Mae Axton - was a friend of mine."
Willie added, "And Leon set the tempo and the feel for the song when we recorded
it. I liked what he was doing so we just went with that."
The Willie Nelson - Leon Russell duet "Heartbreak Hotel" came on the country
music charts on July 7th, 1979 and was at the top of charts on September 1st.
The Columbia Records single was on the charts for 13 weeks.*
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: The radio guys were talking about Joe Diffie performing at some speedway.
Do you know where and what was his first hit record?
A: Joe Diffie has joined the talent lineup for the July 18th - 20th Michigan
International Speedway. His first charted song was also his first number one -
"Home" in 1990.
Q: I heard that the Hall Of Fame set some kind of record. Do you have any
information?
A: More than 668,000 people visited the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2013.
That is an all-time record in that institution's 46 year history.
Q: My daughter heard about a new book about Buck Owens. Do you know anything
about that?
A Buck's autobiography Buck'em," reportedly is Buck's own story about how he
became a country music trailblazer while building his own entertainment empire.
It should be available at your favorite bookstore.
Q: Whatever happened to Rodney Crowell? I know he was a great songwriter but I
thought he also made some great records.
A: Rodney has signed to record for a new label: New West Records - and his
debut album - "Tarpaper Sky," is set for April 15th release.
Q: Have you heard of a Ray Price record titled "It's All Your Fault?" My
brother in law says it was played on the radio sometime in the 50's.
A: "It's All Your Fault" was on the flip-side of Ray's 1958 number 3 hit,
"Curtain In The Window."
Q: I love the Mel Tillis record of "I Ain't Never." My dad says that song
was a hit for some other singer years before Mel's record came along. Is that
true?
A: Webb Pierce scored a number two hit on "I Ain't Never" in 1959 - before
Mel's version made it to number one in 1972.
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Your comments, suggestions, gripes, etc. concerning this newsletter---are
welcome. Email *to: Classics@countrymusicclassics.com*
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* NUMBER ONE ON THIS DATE:*
*1951*
/The Shot Gun Boogie/ - Tennessee Ernie Ford *
*1959*
/Billy Bayou/ - Jim Reeves *
*1967*
/There Goes My Everything/ - Jack Greene *
*1975*
/Kentucky Gambler/ - Merle Haggard *
*1983*
/(Lost His Love) On Our Last Date/ - Emmylou Harris *
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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*
*
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*
GROWING OLD WITH GRACE.*
By: Jack Blanchard
Misty says, "You're growing old with grace.
And Grace is getting sick of it."
I'm getting paranoid about age.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of photographs in circulation
taken of us when we were younger,
and now we seem to be in competition with our younger selves.
When we meet somebody in the supermarket,
and they start up a conversation,
it often ends up with them wanting a business card
so they can find our home page, or contact us by phone.
They are starting to say things like this:
"WOW! That picture must have been taken a long time ago!"
We wrestle with them trying to get the card back,
because, actually, the picture on our card was taken just two years ago!
The picture was taken in a good light
and we were all gussied up for a special occasion.
(That's the first time I've ever said "gussied up".)
Then we threw away most of the photos taken that night
and picked the one that looks the least awful.
It's real and looks pretty good,
but we don't come off like that half asleep,
on a hot windy day,
and under the supermarket Fluorescent lights.
I'm thinking of getting cards with terrible pictures on them,
so people will say good things like
"Hey, you look great now! I'm glad you survived the train wreck."
Maybe a picture of two skeletons.
But then they'd say "I see you've gained weight."
Maybe we can get cowboy hats with flattering lights under the brims.
Or wear our hoodies on backwards.
Those young Misty and Jack brats out there are getting annoying.
While looking around for our songs and reviews,
I actually found a Jack Blanchard grave on Google,
but somebody was already in it.
Damn! All the good graves are taken!
*
Jack Blanchard*
*http:// - http:///www.jackandmisty.net - http://www.jackandmisty.net
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TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY*
compiled by Bill Morrison*
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*
*1911 - *Fields Ward 1911~1987, fiddler, born in Buck Mountain,
Virginia. Fields was the son of fiddler Davy Crockett Ward, and recorded with
his band in the late 1920's and later for the Library of Congress as a member of
the Bog Trotters.*
*
*1920 - *Herman Barrier 1920~1988, of the Barrier Brothers, a
Bluegrass Band was born in Harden County, Tennessee. *
*1932 - *The /first/ dressing room was constructed backstage
at the Ryman Auditorium.*
*1937 - *Polly Lewis Copsey, of The Lewis Family was born in Lincoln
County, Georgia.*
*1940 - *Johnny Russell 1940~2001, singer, songwriter, guitarist and
TV actor, born in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and raised in Fresno,
California. Johnny became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1985. He was billed
as The Biggest Act in Country Music. He recorded for RCA Victor and Mercury, and
charted 28 country single hits on Billboards Country Chart. *
*1940 - *Joe Dowell, recording artist, born in Bloomington,
Indiana.*
*1947 - *Merle Travis recorded Steel Guitar Rag.*
*1949 - *Ernest Tubb recorded the Vaughn Horton penned /"Till The
End Of The World" /and the Troy Martin-Ernest Tubb penned /"Daddy,
When is Mommy Coming Home" /at Castle Studios, in Nashville. Paul Cohen
produced the session, which required adding a second day (January 24th) to
complete the project. The session personnel included Ernest Tubb~Vocals; Jack
Drake~Bass; Bill Drake~Rhythm guitar; Hal Smith~Fiddle; Don Davis~Steel guitar;
Tommy Paige~Lead guitar; Banjo Murphy~Banjo. /Till The End Of The World
/charted in March, topped out at #4, and remained on the chart for 9 weeks.
This was Ernest's 20th chart hit. /Daddy, When is Mommy Coming Home
/charted in May, topped out at #15, and was on the chart for 1 week. This
was Ernest's 23 chart hit.*
*1956 - *Harley Allen, son of Red Allen, singer, songwriter born today
in Dayton, Ohio.*
*1957 - *Gerald Cline, Patsy Clines /first/ husband, filed
for divorce.*
*1959 - *Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Dion began
their ill-fated /Winter Dance Party /tour. Less than two weeks later
(February 3, 1959) all but Dion would be dead, the result of a plane
crash.*
*1969 - *Elvis Presley recorded Suspicious Minds in Memphis at the
American Studios, for his album /From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To
Memphis. /The two record album hit the Billboard Country Album chart in
December, and topped out at #5.*
*1972 - *T. Texas Tyler 1916~1971, age 55, a.k.a. David Luke Myrick
died from cancer in Springfield, Missouri. Tyler was known as The Man with a
Million Friends. *
*1976 - *Donny and Marie Osmond debuted their /Donny & Marie Show
/on the ABC network.1982 - Ricky Skaggs Cryin My Heart Out Over You
charted, and became Rickys /first/ #1 single.*
*1986 - *Elvis Presley was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
at their first ever ceremony.*
*1987 - *Reba McEntires MCA album Whoevers in New England was
certified Gold by the R.I.A.A. This was Rebas /first /Gold
album.*
*1990 - *Texas Jim Lewis 1909~1990, singer, songwriter, guitarist and
actor, leader of the Lone Star Cowboys died at the age of 80.*
*1990 - *Clint Blacks RCA album Killin Time was certified Platinum by
the RIAA This was Clints /first /Platinum album.*
*1991 - *The IRS auctioned off Willie Nelsons property, to satisfy his
tax debt. Most of the items that Willie cared about were purchased by friends
and returned to him. *
*1993 -* Wayne Raney 1920~1993, disc jockey, recording artist, and
sideman, known as /The Harmonica Wizard,/ died at the age of 72. Wayne
was inducted into the Country Music D.J. Hall of Fame 1993.*
*1993 -* Thomas A. Dorsey, age 93, writer of Take My Hand Precious
Lord and Peace In The Valley died in Chicago from Alzheimers disease.*
*1995 - *Alan Jacksons single Gone Country went to #1 on Billboards
country chart. The song charted 23 weeks earlier. No song in Billboard history
ever took that long to reach the top.*
*2004 - *Josh Gracin signed his /first /recording contract
with the Lyric Street label.*
*2005 - *Bill Simmons, age 80, keyboardist with the Light Crust
Doughboys died in Texas. Inducted Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Texas Western Swing
Hall of Fame, and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.*
*2005 - *Kenny Alphin, the Big of Big & Rich, and Christiev Carothers
were married in Deadwood, South Dakota.*
*2005 - *Johnny Carson, age 79, host of NBCs Tonight Show died in a
California hospital from emphysema.*
*2005 - *Art Stamper former fiddle player for Ralph Stanleys Clinch
Mountain Boys died in a Louisville, Kentucky hospital.*
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html>
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*
VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH*
By: Stan Hitchcock*
*
An Ozark Christmas-1950 One of my fondest Christmas memories is not the Lionel
Electric Train that really smoked, which I got in 1941, nor the .22 rifle I got
in 1948 at twelve years old, but rather in 1950 when all the kids from the New
Salem Methodist Church went caroling on a snowy night before Christmas. We had
to park the cars and trucks down at the farm to market road and hike in through
the knee deep snow about a quarter mile to reach the ancient widow womans log
house. About twelve of us gathered around the coal oil lit window, extra light
spilling from the holes in the missing clay chinking between the logs which were
leaning at a rather precarious angle, and started singing our Christmas Carols
in our ever changing teen voices. The front door opened and the 80 something
years old lady stood there with tears streaming down the channels that the years
of hard toil had left on her face, that were not scars as much as road maps of
her long journey. She spoke, barely above a whisper, and invited us in her home,
where she lived, totally alone for all the years after her husband had died,
with no children or any other close kin to care about her. We had prepared a
Christmas box with a Ham or Turkey, assorted canned goods, a 5 pound sack of
taters and some cookies and a cake our Mothers had baked, to guarantee this
sweet lady would have a good meal for Christmas. She put a pan of milk on the
old wood stove, filled it with milk she had taken from her cow just that
morning, added cocoa and sugar from her pantry and served us the best hot
chocolate I have ever tasted. We sang a couple more Christmas songs for her as
she stood in the dim light from the coal oil lamps, the fire place quietly
burning behind her, eyes closed as she listened while the music took her to
Christmas past and times we could never know. Somehow, not the presentsnot the
foodbut, that old time worn face has remained a central part of my Christmas
memories, for it is moments like that which are precious. We spent about an
hour, singing and visiting with the old soul, then, saying our "Merry
Christmas!" wishes for her, we started back through the snow to our vehicles. As
the Yellow glow of the coal oil lamps faded behind us, we were silent in our own
thoughts...maybe Christmas had just taken on a new meaning to some of us,,,but,
for sure, it left a warm and personally satisfying memory of time well spent, on
a cold Ozark night, where a few Christmas Carols were the best gift the old
Widow Woman would receive that year.
*
Stan Hitchcock
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:*
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Matthew 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you. -
<http://www.thedailybibleverse.org/bible-verse-but-i-tell-you-love-your-enemies-and-pray-for-those-who-persecute-you>
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