BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
THIS MONTH’S MEETING WILL BE THE FIRST SUNDAY, JUNE 14TH 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1721 OXMOOR RD BIRMINGHAM, AL 35209
NEXT MONTH’S MEETING WILL BE HELD THE SECOND SUNDAY, JULY 12TH AT 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1721 OXMOOR RD BIRMINGHAM, AL 35209
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
Seeing some of the old radio surveys that were brought to the meeting and remembering how fun and ‘important’ they were to those of us growing up ‘back in the day’ made for a fun meeting. Who would have thought that one day they would be a collectible item. To know that this is something that goes from the Maine to California and that there are websites for real enthusiast makes for an entertaining hobby. Thanks, guys for educating us about the interest in this hobby.
This month we will take something we learned concerning those radio surveys and bring it to reality. Looking at surveys from the late 1950’s through the late 1960’s we saw quite a variety of music genres mixed together. And when I look back at it that was part of the enjoyment of music. There was no country, no pop, no rock & roll, no R&B. To me it was just music on my favorite radio stations. I enjoyed it all. But there is one of those genres that we seemed to have overlooked at our meetings that brought us some outstanding music. That is Country or as some call it, Country & Western. We will be playing some of the Country hits that crossed over from C&W charts to the Pop charts. If you liked those crossovers then, drop by and hear some of that great music you sang along with. I bet you haven’t heard some in a long time and probably have forgotten some of them. See ya there!
BRC RECORD SHOW COMING SOON
We are just 2 months away from our 41st annual record show. Preparations are underway but there is plenty to do so we still need volunteers now and at the show. Dates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday August 14-16.
Place: Gardendale Civic Center
Time: Friday – 10-2 for BRC members only. 2-7 for the public.
Saturday – 9-5
Sunday – 10-4
Plan on attending, bring a friend and spread the word. See ya there!!
COUNTRY CROSSOVERS – COUNTRY TO POP
I do not know what C/W song crossed over to the Pop charts first but the first C/W song to go to the top of the Pop charts was Al Dexter’s ‘Pistol Packin’ Mama’ in 1943. This song paved the way for other country artists to have success on both charts. As I said earlier, I think after a while all genres just became music to listen to not necessarily a mix of genres to listen to.
What has been on my mind lately are the country songs I heard growing up that I enjoyed that were played right alongside Elvis, Chuck, Dion, Ricky, Bo and so on. See how many of these you remember and how they made listening to radio fun. Below are songs and artists from the mid 1950’s and the later part of the 1960’s I remember well but first I want to mention a few artists who would become very famous C/W stars but tried rock & roll in their repertoire early in their career.
Marty Robbins would go on to have 84 C/W charted songs 16 of which made #1. After having a hand full of C/W hits Columbia Records released in 1955, ‘Maybelline’ and in 1956 ‘Long Tall Sally’. Columbia released his version of ‘That’s All Right’ in 1955 a song which helped put Elvis on the map when he recorded it in 1954. Marty’s version did go to #7 on the C/W charts.
Conway Twitty would chart 97 songs on the C/W charts, the first being in 1966 but before that success started, he had 16 songs chart on the pop charts between 1957-1962 including his #1 song, ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. Other rock style songs he did during that time included ‘Hey Little Lucy!’, ‘Lonely Blue Boy’ and ‘Long Black Train’. He style was a combination of Elvis and Buddy Holly.
Charlie Rich did some really good rockers before his success began in the country vein. He had 45 C/W songs that charted plus 9 that went to #1. He had 2 Pop charted songs before he made the C/W charts. Those were ‘Lonely Weekends’ and ‘Mohair Sam’. He had a few songs that bubbled under the Top 100 on the Pop charts including ‘Just A Little Bit Sweet’ and a good rocking version of ‘Big Boss Man’. Other releases that did not chart were ‘Whirlwind’ and ‘Sittin’ And Thinkin’.
Bobby Bare’s early releases included 10 of his first 12 C/W hits that crossed over. But his first song to chart was on the pop charts. It was released on the Fraternity label and mistakenly listed the singer as Bill Parsons. The song, ‘The All American Boy’ hit #2 on the Pop charts in 1958. After that his success on both charts started and his success solely on the C/W charts started in 1966 where he would go on to have 56 more hits there.
Jerry Reed had a release on Capitol in 1957 that had the rock and teener feel. No country there. ‘In My Own Backyard’ and ‘Ba-Bee’ were the cuts. He had 2 releases that made the Top 100 on the Pop charts before he made the C/W charts. ‘Goodnight Irene’ and ‘Hully Gully Guitar’ got him started there but he then had 2 decades of hits on the C/W charts.
It has been said that Wanda Jackson started out as a rocker but then went country but she did have some success on the C/W chart first then tried rock & roll and then back to country. She had 2 Top 20 hits on the country side then 1 rocker on the pop chart, ‘Let’s Have A Party’ and then 28 more C/W hits over a 13 year period. But she had a few early LP’s that included quite a few rock, R&B and pop style songs.
There are others I am sure but let’s move on to some of the songs that hit both the charts and listeners at the time just enjoyed it and didn’t hear country vs rock. First, in no particular order would be Carl Butler’s ‘Don’t Let Me Cross Over’. 1962, #1 country and #88 pop. Don Gibson’s ‘Oh Lonesome Me’. 1958 #1 country and #7 pop. David Houston’s ‘Almost Persuaded’. 1966 #1 country and #24 pop. Hank Locklin’s ‘Please Help Me I’m Fallin’. 1960 #1 country and #8 pop. Ferlin Husky’s ‘Gone’. 1957 #1 country # 4 pop. He also had ‘Wings Of A Dove’. 1960 #1 country #12 pop. Dave Dudley’s ‘Six Days On The Road’. 1963 #2 country #32 pop. LeRoy Van Dyke’s ‘Walk On By’. 1961 #1 country and #5 pop. Faron Young’s ‘Hello Walls’. 1961 #1 country and #12 pop. Billy Grammer’s ‘Gotta Travel On’. 1959 #5 country and # 4 pop. Claude King’s ‘Wolverton Mountain’. 1962 #1 country and #6 pop. Tammy Wynette’s ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E. 1968 #1 country and #63 pop. Bobby Edwards’ ‘You’re The Reason’. 1961 #4 country and #11 pop. George Hamilton’s ‘Abilene’. 1963 #1 country and #15 pop. Johnny Horton’s ‘Honky Tonk Man’. 1962 #11 country and #96 pop. This song was released first in 1956 making it to # 9 country but did nothing pop. Wanda Jackson’s ‘Right Or Wrong’. 1961 #9 country #29 pop. Webb Pierce’s ‘I Ain’t Never’. 1959 #2 country and #24 pop. A guy that you may think had quite a few crossovers was George Jones, but he didn’t. He had 7 crossovers with ‘White Lightnin’’ being his most successful. 1959 #1 country and #73 pop.
Some of the more prominent ‘crossovers’ follow here. Patsy Cline’s first 10 releases crossed over. Her most successful was ‘Crazy’. 1961 #2 country and #9 pop. Eddy Arnold had 30 crossovers out of 145 C/W charted songs. The one I remember most over my radio airwaves would be ‘What’s He Doing In My World’. 1965 #1 country and #60 pop. Jim Reeves had 23 of his 80 C/W hits crossover. I remember most of his but the best was his ‘He’ll Have To Go’. 1959 #1 country and #2 pop. Marty Robbins had 20 of his 94 C/W hits crossover. I probably remember him on the pop airwaves more than anyone including these: “Singing The Blues’. 1956 #1 country and #17 pop. ‘A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)’. 1957 #1 country and #2 pop. ‘El Paso’. 1959 #1 country and #1 pop. ‘Don’t Worry’. 1961 31 country # 3 pop. ‘Devil Woman’. 1962 #1 country and #16 pop. The song of Marty’s that was probably #1 in the Birmingham area that never charted country but did make it to #45 pop was ‘Cap And Gown’. Every year at the end of the school year it was played around here for all the graduates. It was always fun waiting to hear it year after year and then I heard it my graduation year. Bobby Bare’s success for crossing over was mentioned above but I did not mention a song. How about ‘Shame on Me’. 1962 #18 country and #23 pop. Probably the biggest name would be Johnny Cash. He had 41 of his 135 country hits crossover to pop. Of all the great songs he did his most successful was the novelty song ‘A Boy Named Sue’. 1969 #1 country and #1 pop.
I know there are more but these are the ones I remember best during my coming-of-age time. It was a fun time to listen to the radio. Hope this list brought back some great memories of your own.
BRC RADIO
Check out the BRC Radio podcasts on our websit – birminghamrecord.com Click on RADIO and choose from shows that go bask as far as 2013. Currently we have 3 different hosts and they all play a variety of music. Here are the latest shows you can find on our site.
June 7 – The Vinyl Experience With Tom Faison – Music Of The Mind
May 31 – Country hits that crossed over to the pop/rock charts
May 17 – Sounds of the Girls and Girl Groups
See ya, Charlie