COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS*
*
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday July 24th, 2014
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.countrymusicclassics.com
*
STORY BEHIND THE SONG*
*
Recording artists and record labels don't always agree on which songs to
release.
And such was the case of Johnny Lee's 1980 number one, "One In A Million."
According to Lee, he had wanted to release "Do You Love As Good As You Look" as
a follow-up to his first number one, "Lookin' For Love."
He commented, "I felt a little cheated when the label refused to release "Do You
Love As Good As You Look" and The Bellamy Brothers released the song. But the
label released "One In A Million," which went to number one - and giving me two
number ones in a row1
Johnny Lee's Asylum Records single "One In A Million" came on the country music
charts October 25th, 1980 and made it to the top of the charts December 27th.
It was his 8th charted song and his second number one.*
*
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I heard the radio guys talking about a new Cowboy Jack Clement album -
although he died last year. So how can he still be making new records?
A: The album was obviously recorded before his death. The project For Once And
For All," has just been released.
Q: I have heard that Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris are part of a new
Johnny Cash album. Do you have any details?
A: Both Kris and Emmylou have tracks in the new "Look Again To The Wind:
Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited," which is scheduled for August 19th
release and pays tribute to the golden anniversary of Cash's classic 1964 album.
Q: Do you know anything about a Ray Stevens project at the hall of fame? It
was mentioned on the radio.
A: Stevens was featured in a recent Songwriter Session at The Country Music
Hall Of Fame and Museum.
Q: The TV news mentioned that George Strait's tour has set some kind of
record. Do you have any details?
A: Twenty six dates of George Strait's "The Cowboy Rides Away" tour
reportedly grossed over $61.8 million dollars.
Q: I have a tape recording from the radio of some guy singing the Cal Smith
hit "It's Time To Pay The Fiddler." It sounds like Conway Twitty. Did Conway
record that song?
A: Conways version of "It's Time To Pay The Fiddler" is in his 1975 "Linda
On My Mind" album.
Q: My brother used to sing a song about "Live Your Life Out Loud." He said it
was a big song sometimes in the 1960's. Do you have any information about such
a song?
A: "Live Your Life Out Loud" scored a number 44 hit for Bobby Lord in 1968.
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Your comments, suggestions, gripes, etc. concerning this newsletter---are
welcome. Email *to: Classics@countrymusicclassics.com*
* ^^^^^^^^^^*
* NUMBER ONE ON THIS DATE:*
*1949*
/One Kiss Too Many/ - Eddy Arnold *
*1957*
/Bye Bye Love/ - The Everly Brothers *
*1965*
/Before You Go/ - Buck Owens *
*1973*
/Love is the Foundation/ - Loretta Lynn *
*1981*
/Feels So Right/ - Alabama *
*1989*
/ Going on in Your World/* - George Strait*
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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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*
A STRING OF COINCIDENCES.*
By: Jack Blanchard
Who and where we are today is the result of coincidences.
I happened to go to a grammar school that stressed English
and writing essays.
Luckily, it was just around the corner from our house.
Fortunately, my family and Misty's family were musically inclined.
My dad brought great records home to expose me to the good stuff.
They bought me a Gibson guitar
when my hands were still too small to hold down the strings.
I never learned to play it, but I liked to hold it and listen to music.
Misty's mother played the piano and sang in the Ella FitzGerald style.
She wanted to be a professional singer, but it never came to be.
Misty learned her first music at home.
So, we both got our musical start by the accident of birth.
I never played an instrument till I was about fourteen.
Then, unexpectedly,
my father got too sick to work and we had to move in with my grandparents.
They happened to have a piano.
I got hooked on the piano and sat on that bench many hours a day,
teaching myself to play boogie and blues.
A few years later,
Misty and I were playing small gigs around town... separately.
We never met in all the time we lived in the Buffalo area,
but we played some of the same places, with the same musicians.
Both of us got married to other people, went from poor to broke,
and headed desperately to Florida in old cars,
selling the radio, the spare tire, and anything that was loose,
just to buy gas.
Maybe we passed each other on the road and didn't know it.
Later I was playing piano at an Italian restaurant and lounge
on US 1 in Hollywood, Florida.
By chance, Misty was playing in a show lounge one block away.
We were still strangers.
Then one Monday night, my night off,
on a whim I dropped in at my club to see if anybody I knew was there.
Misty was talking to the owner about the piano job.
He told her that he planned to keep me, but he bought her dinner.
That's the night we got together for life.
I'll skip over a number of lean years
and the parts where we were homeless,
on the street, and in deep trouble.
Let's move on to the night the Grammy winning TV producer
happened to come into a club where we were playing,
and gave us this advice:
"Develop an unusual style of music and singing,
a style of dress that will attract attention, get some off-beat material,
and create an image that will draw crowds.
Nobody will walk across the street to see a good-looking musician,
but they'll flock to see a good band that's a little freaky."
He added:
"Don't do it here in Miami where they know you.
Go to a place where they don't know you,
walk in as your new selves and they will think you were born that way.
They'll accept you however you present yourselves."
As luck would have it, we had some musician friends in Key West.
They got us a booking at the Gold Coast lounge... a show bar.
We were nervous because of our radical clothes
and our new music style,
and Misty had trouble answering to her new name... Misty.
The crowd loved us and the place was packed every night.
Within a couple of weeks two guys wandered in
and signed us to a recording contract.
They took us to Nashville for a four-song session at Woodland Studios.
One of the songs happened to get a Pick in Billboard,
and another got about halfway up the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
That was a lot of years ago and, against the odds,
we're still together, still in music,
and still watching for the next coincidence.
Jack Blanchard*
*http:// - http:///www.jackandmisty.net - http://www.jackandmisty.net
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*
T*ODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY*
compiled by Bill Morrison*
*
Arval Albert Hogan, born Robbinsville, NC 1911.
Donald "Red" Blanchard, "WLS National Barn Dance," born Pittsville, WI
1914.
Lawton Williams singer/songwriter born Troy, TN 1922.
The Crook Brothers debuted on WSM's "Barn Dance" _1926_. Shortly
thereafter, the show was re-named the "Grand Ole Opry." Almost every Saturday
night for sixty-two years the Crook Brothers were on stage, entertaining another
Opry audience.
The following ad was placed in the Bristol Herald Courier, by a local company
that distributed Victrola products. "The Victor Company will have a recording
machine in Bristol for ten days beginning Monday, to record recordsInquire at
our store." _1927_. The following day, the most important recording
sessions in the history of country music were began in Bristol, Tennessee. They
are know as "The Bristol Sessions."
Max D. Barnes, singer/songwriter, born Hardscratch, IA 1936.
Bob Wills recorded "Cherokee Maiden" 1941.
Chet Atkins, age 17, was employed by WRBL in Columbus, GA 1941.
Roy Acuff announced his intent to run for governor of Tennessee
1948.
Pam Tillis born Plant City, FL 1957.
Johnny Cash recorded "What Do I Care" & "Oh, What A Dream" 1958.
Patsy Cline's #1 country hit "I Fall To Pieces" charted 1961.
Ral Donner's "You Don't Know What You've Got" (Until You Lose it) charted
1961.
Capitol Records released Buck Owens' single "Under The Influence Of Love,"
_1961_. The record peaked at No. 2 on the charts.
Marty Robbins signed with MCA Records 1973.
Lester "Mac" McFarland, age 82, of "Mac & Bob" died 1984.
Reprise Records released Emmylou Harris' "Duets" album 1990.
Gretchen Wilson's album "Here For The Party" topped the charts 2004.
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html*>
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*
*
VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock*
*
Well, as Wynn Stewart sang for us, "It's Such A Pretty World Today", and it is
just that here on the Porch of the Old Farm House on the hill above the Sycamore
lined creek. I expected it, and sure enough, there it is. The Sun just easing
over the mountains, and streaking across the front yard. My good dog Buck The
Collie, ever vigilant and on guard for the persistent deer that love to run
across the yard of a morning, on the way to their breakfast. *
Speaking of Wynn Stewart, this man who was such an influence on a whole
generation of California singers, including Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, he and
I were raised up just a few miles apart in the Missouri Ozarks. Wynn was from
Morrisville and I from Pleasant Hope, just about ten miles apart. We never met,
growing up, because Wynn had left and gone to California by the time i was
starting to get interested in music. In later years, of the 60's and 70's, we
worked some concerts together and I would stand at the side of the backstage
area and marvel at his voice and at Ralph Mooney playing Steel with him. By the
80's, Wynn became very reclusive and gave in to alcoholism...he left California
and moved to Hendersonville to live with his Sister in some apartments just down
the street from where, in 1982-84, I had erected a big Circus Tent and was
having daily concerts for the Bus tours coming to Nashville. For weeks I had
noticed a Chevrolet El Camino pickup parked just behind the tent, and a man who
would sit, with his windows down all through our show, listening to the music.
One day I decided to go out and talk to the person and invite him to come on in
to the show...as I approached the truck, the man started the engine and backed
out to leave...I was close enough by then to see that it was Wynn Stewart. I
found that very sad, for a man of such boundless talent, to be overcome by his
addiction to alcohol. Oh, how those country music fans, sitting out in the
audience under the Circus Tent, would have been thrilled for me to bring out
Wynn Stewart and hear his great music...but, it was not to be. In 1985, Wynn
Stewart died of a heart attack, and we all lost one of the truly great Artists
of our time. *
Years later, in about 2004, Wynn Stewart was inducted into the Missouri Country
Music Hall Of Fame, along with Ferlin Husky, Porter Wagoner, Leona Williams and
myself. As the ceremony was happening, I could not help but go back to that
parking lot, behind a Circus Tent, and a lonely figure sitting listening to
music that he no longer felt a part of...even though he was a pioneer who
created so much for all of us to enjoy. I always wished that I could have gotten
to him, before he could pull away, and tell him just how much his music had
always meant to me. I did get to tell that to his daughter, at the Missouri Hall
of Fame reception. Great Music outlives all our problems or addictions...and
future generations will be enjoying, "It's Such A Pretty World To day", just as
they always have. stan*
*Stan Hitchcock
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
*
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:*
*
But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or
Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were
determined to live in that land. *
* Judges 1:27 (NIV)*
*
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