COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday June 4th, 2015
Email: djdclassics@gmail.com
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Some songwriters say they remember writing every single word of a certain song,
and other writers will tell you they don't remember writing a certain song and
according to songwriter Walt Alridge - Barbara Mandrell's 1982 number one,
"Til You're Gone" was one of the latter.
Walt commented, "Tommy Brasfield and I were writing together and things were
really clickin' - so we just kept writing. During that time we were writing
together
every night and wrote a lot of songs and "Til You're Gone" was one of them. So I
don't specifically remember writing that song. It was just one of several things
we wrote during that time."
Barbara Mandrell placed 55 songs on the country music charts from 1969 thru
1989 -
including six number ones.
Her MCA Records single "Til You're Gone" came on the charts May 1st, 1982 and
was
in the top slot on July 17th.
The single was produced by Tom Collins and was her 30th charted song. It was on
the charts for 19 weeks.
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I have heard that the trio - Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt
- is releasing a new album. I thought one of them was seriously ill and unable
to sing.
A: The new Trio album - which is set for fall release - is material from the
women's previous recording sessions. Linda Ronstadt is battling Parkisons
disease - which has left her unable to sing.
Q: Have you heard anything new on Reba McEntire's brothers condition?
A: According to Reba - her brother Pake McEntire continues to improve after
suffering a stroke.
Q: The radio guys mentioned a new Bellamy Brothers CD. Do you have any
information?
A: Howard and David Bellamy are celebrating 40 years in the music business
with a two disc release of new and previously recorded tracks. One disc contains
20 re-recorded hits and another features 20 all-new tracks. "Bellamy Brothers:
40 Years" is available now.
Q: Have you ever heard a song titled "I'll Just Have To Learn To Stay Away
From You?" It's one of those songs that has stuck in the back of my mind for
years.
A: That song is a track in Johnny Rodriguez' 1973 "All I Ever Mean't To Do Was
Sing" album.
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ATTENTION: Effective July 1st – our old email address
=classics@countrymusicclassics.com= will be no more. Please delete
that address from your contact list and replace it NOW with
djdclassics@gmail.com AND if you've emailed me in the past ten
days – please resend to the G-mail address
&&&&&&&&&
Q: Do you know the name of the guy who had the comedy version of "Harper Valley
PTA?"
A: "Harper Valley PTA (Later That Same Day)" was a number 24 in 1968 for Ben
Colder - who was actually Sheb Wooley.
Q: Years ago there was a song on the radio that I liked very much. Some guy
was singing "it takes people like you to make people like me." Do you know who
had that record?
A: The song was a number two hit for Buck Owens in 1967.
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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
^^^^^^^^^^
NUMBER ONES ON THIS DATE
1947
In the Jailhouse Now - Webb Pierce
1963
Lonesome 7-7203 - Hawkshaw Hawkins
1971
I Won't Mention It Again - Ray Price
1979
If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me -
Bellamy Brothers
1987
It Takes a Little Rain (To Make Love Grow) - The Oak Ridge Boys
&&&&&&&&&
ATTENTION: Effective July 1st – our old email address
=classics@countrymusicclassics.com= will be no more. Please delete
that address from your contact list and replace it NOW with
djdclassics@gmail.com AND if you've emailed me in the past ten
days – please resend to the G-mail address
&&&&&&&&&
TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
Compiled by Bill Morrison
Texas Ruby born "Ruby Owens," Wise County, TX 1910.
Bill Mack, the "Midnight Cowboy," born Shamrock, TX 1929.
Pee Wee King debuted on the Grand Ole Opry 1937.
Freddy Fender, singer/songwriter/guitarist, born "Baldemar O. Huerta," San
Benito, TX 1937.
Linda Martell born Thelma Bynem in Lexington County, SC 1941. Linda was the
first black female vocalist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, and she made a
total of twelve guest appearances.
Capitol Records began sending out "promotional" copies of records to radio
announcers around the U.S. 1942.
Gene Autry recorded "South of the Border/When It's Round Time In Heaven" 1946.
Johnny Bond recorded "The Daughter of Jole Blon" 1947.
Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-lula" was released 1956.
Bill Morrison recorded "Baby Be Good," at TNT Studio's in San Antonio, TX 1960.
Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, performed together for the last time on the
Grand Ole Opry in 1974.
Clark Kessinger of the Kessinger Brothers died 1975.
Alabama debuted June Jam in Fort Payne, AL 1982.
Alabama's #1 single "The Closer You Get" debuted on Billboard's Top 40 1983.
The Johnny Cash Show toured Australia from the 4th through the 17th in 1985.
The Oak Ridge Boys single "It Takes A Little Rain (To Make Love Grow)" was #1 in
1987.
Zeke Clement, age 82, died in Nashville 1994.
Tim McGraw's "Don't Take The Girl" topped the charts 1994.
Rounder released Rosie Flores' "Honky Tonk Reprise" 1996.
John Hartford, age 63, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist died 2001.
Lew Houston-Childrea, steel guitarist for Conway Twitty, died in Missouri in
2001.
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html>
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VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock
My roots run deep in the Ozark Mountains, and the Illinois and Kansas Prairies.
Dad's ancestors, The McAlister's and the Hitchcock's, settled early in and
around Peoria County, Illinois, in 1830, farmers and hard workers, all. Mom's
family was a combination of Johnson and Wallis. The Johnson side of her family
came from the Kansas Grain Belts, and had to endure the Great Dust Storms of the
20's and 30's, that finally wiped them out. The Johnson's migrated to Southwest
Missouri, after Dad and Mom and little Stanley moved to Springfield in 1940.
The Wallis kin came from the Tennessee hills, moving to Indian Territory in what
is now Boone County, Arkansas in the mid 1800's. The Wallis's homesteaded on top
of Boat Mountain, clearing the trees with a cross cut saw, hewing the logs to
build the log cabins. The cabins were pretty rough stuff, and usually started
out being one room, and as the family grew and the kids got a little bigger to
create the workforce needed, they would add on to the original structures. The
one room cabin would become two rooms with a dog trot space between them and
sleeping lofts upstairs, big fireplaces in both rooms for heat and cooking, with
an overhang across the front to form a porch. Yes, the Wallis clan were early
Ozark pioneers, growing up mighty rough, tough, hard working, fiercely
independent, good and honest people. I only saw my "Great" grandfather Wallis
one time, and to tell the truth, it was pretty scary.
(Rewind back to late Fall in the year 1940)
My four year old self was totally absorbed in watching the rough, rocky road up
the mountain, with wash out holes you could almost lose the '39 Ford Sedan my
dad, Big Stan Hitchcock, was driving. I got my name from my dad and grandpa Ed
Johnson, Stanley Edward Hitchcock, although no one called me Stanley Edward
except my Mom, Ruby Ann. I was sitting on my knees between dad and mom while in
the back seat we had my Aunt Betty Johnson, and my grandpa Edward Lincoln
Johnson and grandma Effie Lula Wallis Johnson, grandpa Ed smoking his old pipe,
stuffed with Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco, in the red tin container he carried
in his top overall pocket, along with the long kitchen matches he would strike
on the metal fastener of the overalls to keep the pipe lit.
I was fascinated by the deer, wild pigs, timber rattlers, a bob cat and other
wild animals jumping, running and slithering across the old rough trail of a
road. Now we probably had most all of these same animals up where we lived, in
the Missouri Ozarks, but up there we had more population and the animals were
not so free to jump in front of the car as down here in the remote Arkansas
Ozarks.
We were heading up this almost impassable trace of a road to visit my "Great"
grandpa Wallis. Now I wasn't real sure just what a "Great" grandpa was, but I
figured it must be pretty important to come all this way. We finally got up the
mountain and in sight of the Wallis homestead, which by now, almost a century
after the first log was laid, had been covered by cypress lap siding. It might
have been whitewashed once upon a time, but you would be hard pressed to have
found any white on those old grey cypress boards now, Out to the side of the
house there was a big old log barn that looked to be in better shape then the
house. It was surrounded by a split rail fence and I was drawn to it like a
magnet.
"Great" grandpa Wallis's first wife, Sarah Jane, mother of grandma Effie, had
died years before and he had remarried. This second wife, "Great" step-granny,
was standing in the front door, looking out across the porch at us pullin' in.
She was standing, arms folded across her bosom looking kinda like a puffed up
Banty hen, in her homespun dress and apron. She had a corncob pipe stuck between
her teeth and looking like she hadn't seen many motor cars come up this
mountain, which made us even cause I never had seen a woman smoke a pipe before.
As we got out and walked up to the porch, me holding mom's hand and trying to
stay behind her as much as possible, "great" step-granny's greeting was a simple
nod of her head and moving aside so we could get through the door.
As we gained entrance to the living space of the old house, it was hard to make
out details because of the smoke from the fireplace in the room. With the small
fire flickering against the shadows, the only other light being from the two
small windows on either side of the room. The floor was wide hand cut boards
that had been worn down over the years and creaked every time we took a step on
them. Finally my eyes adjusted, the smoke kinda cleared, and I saw "Great"
grandpa. He was a big man, probably in his late 70's, in faded blue overalls
covering his long johns, and a snow white head of hair and a long white beard
that came down to the center of his chest. I say "white beard" but really it was
multicolored in shades of brown and grey from the tobacco juice that escaped
from the side of his mouth when he would spit. He sit there looking at us in a
hard way, then turned and spit his tobacco juice about 6 foot into the
fireplace. PSSSSSSST! The juice sizzled when it hit the fire, and that sound has
stuck with me all these years. He then turned his head back toward us and said,
as way of greeting, "Effie, get me a cup of coffee to saucer."
I was trying to figure out what was so "Great" about this old man, and ended up
deciding it must be his multicolored beard and his ability to spit that far,
which I have practiced and practiced and still cannot even come close.
While the folks were gathering around the fireplace to visit, I slipped out the
half-open door and headed to the barn. As I got closer I noticed some pretty
bushes that had prickly shells hanging all over it that I figured held nuts
inside. Getting a couple of rocks and bashing the coverings I found indeed they
held nuts and they were pretty dang good. My introduction to Ozark Chinqupens,
which at that time grew plentiful in the deep Ozarks but have since pretty much
disappeared. I played around the barn, climbing and exploring about every inch
until the old tattered billy goat in the lot chased me out and over the rail
fence and I went back to the house.
Coming back inside, I stood and watched the old man they called "Great" as he
continued to spit in the fireplace. He would look at me, in the semi-darkness,
staring from under a wild growth of eyebrows in a very stern way, but never said
a word. Finally we all got ready to head out back down the mountain and it's
only in later years I have studied on the old original Ozarkers, and "Great"
grandpa in particular. They were a rough, tough tribe, the early settlers to the
interior of our country. They had to be tough, to survive the hardships. They
were rough because all the sentiment and softness had been burned out of them by
the life they had to lead. I realize now that "Great" grandpa's and grandma's
truly were great by their nature to keep moving West, prove up the homestead and
raise a group of children that would number sometimes up to 10 or 15 on a
hardscrabble hillside farm in a remote section in the back of beyond. Those
generations of "Greats" will never be seen again in this country that they
founded, settled, built, improved and worked their selves to death to "do" for
the family. Reckon that's where we got the term "making do". "Great" grandpa, I
never got to really know you, but dang I wish I could spit like you. Thank God
for the old ones that came before and left it better….for us to
come.
Stan Hitchcock
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
&&&&&&&&&
ATTENTION: Effective July 1st – our old email address
=classics@countrymusicclassics.com= will be no more. Please delete
that address from your contact list and replace it NOW with
djdclassics@gmail.com AND if you've emailed me in the past ten
days – please resend to the G-mail address
&&&&&&&&&
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is
this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
—Ecclesiastes 7:12
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