Roy Acuff made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the Dixie Tabernacle in Nashville in 1938. Within days, sacks of mail began arriving at WSM radio, requesting the boy who sang Great Speckled Bird be invited back. Acuff sideman Clell Summey became the first to play Dobro on the Opry.
Patsy Cline recorded Sweet Dreams at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville in 1963.
Burl Ives recorded A Holly Jolly Christmas at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville in 1964. The song was featured that December on the NBC-TV special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Willie Nelson began recording his Shotgun Willie album at the Atlantic Recording Studios in New York in 1973. The project included his first version of Whiskey River.
Conway Twitty recorded Don’t Take It Away at Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios in 1979.
Arista released Diamond Rio’s debut single, Meet In The Middle in 1991.
John Michael Montgomery’s I Swear began a four-week stay at #1 on the Billboard country singles chart in 1994.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Claude King was born near Keithville, LA in 1923. He earned a half-dozen hits during the 1960s, with Wolverton Mountain emerging as his signature recording.
Drummer Hal Blaine was born in Holyoke, MA in 1929. One of the most-recorded session drummers of the 1960s and ’70s, he played on recordings by Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, Shelly West and John Denver, among others. In all, it’s estimated he played on more than 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. Click here to see a list of SOME of the songs he contributed to. WOW!
Henson Cargill was born in Oklahoma City, OK in 1941. The former deputy sheriff earned his only #1 single in 1968 with the social statement Skip A Rope.
Sara Evans was born in Boonville, MO in 1971. Following her 1998 hit No Place That Far, she became one of the biggest female stars of the ensuing decade behind Born To Fly, Suds In The Bucket, A Real Fine Place To Start and A Little Bit Stronger.
