Shaharazade and I were in the Pearl District of Portland this afternoon. She needed new tennis shoes and the shop that sells a certain brand is there. We picked up a pair for her and she had to go to another shop around the corner. I think that's really why she wanted to go to the Pearl. It's a very nice store called Anthropologie. You might know it. They have lots of locations. Anyway, my point is they were playing music, as they always do, over the sound system and one song in particular, a modern one, reminded me of this first one and the one it reminded me of, reminded me of the rest.
I didn't realize at the time, in 1964, how old Skeeter Davis was when she recorded this. 33 years old! Wow. Ancient! This song was originally done by Patience and Prudence but I prefer Skeeter's.
Hank Williams was only 29 when he died. The story is told nicely in Tim Hardin's song "Tribute to Hank Williams". Man, the things you can find out thanks to Wiki! His last song was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive".
George Jones is a Texas lad who has, apparently, had a very long and very successful career. Sadly, I've missed it and know him from remakes by other artists. I first heard this song as done by Sonny Webb and the Cascades, a Mersey Beat group.
There sure are a lot of ...oops, almost said "crackers"....Southerners on this list. Here's Claude King from Louisiana. He's 87 now, was 39 when this was a hit. Wiki says this song is based on real people.
Here's a strange story. So Johnny Burnette, his brother Dorsey and friend Paul Burlison formed The Rockabilly Trio, went on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour show, won for three weeks in a row, got a record deal, put out some great rockabilly, got offered an appearance in a movie by Alan Freed and yet shortly thereafter were all working day jobs. Johnny and Dorsey moved to California and struggled as songwriters before Ricky Nelson did some of their tunes, like "Believe What You Say". Johnny went on to do "You're Sixteen" and Dorsey did this number. But it just amazes me that these guys, who are so highly regarded as rockabilly legends and who did achieve success later, had a period where they were nobodies.
Here's another pop country hit, this by Johnny Preston, most famous for singing the Big Bopper's "Running Bear". For years I tried to track down a copy of Preston doing "Feel So Fine", remembering it as a perfect record. It's not. I should never have found it. But, anyway, this one is included because it fits the mood.
Don Gibson had some hits like "Lonesome Me" and this one. He also wrote some very famous songs including "I Can't Stop Loving You" and the very last one on tonight's list.
Here's a goody. I taped a rockabilly special off the radio one night and listened to it many times, not realizing that this artist, Corky Jones, was the pseudonym of a famous country star. Apparently he felt this song was too much of a rock 'n roll song and it might damage his country western career! It was another few years before Buck Owens had his first #1 with "Act Naturally".
Finally, to close it out for tonight, I was looking for Patsy Cline's version of this song, written, as noted above, by Don Gibson, and couldn't find a youtube of it. Oh well. So here, once again, is Tommy McLain's version of Sweet Dreams. To tell you the truth, this is my favorite version, although I would have liked to have posted Patsy's.
