FEBRUARY 13
1914: ASCAP was formed at the Hotel Claridge in New York City. The performing rights agency–the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers–collects and distributes royalties to songwriters for the public use of their works.
1919: Tennessee Ernie Ford was born in Bristol, TN. His 1955 hit “Sixteen Tons” is the musical high point of a career that includes radio, recording, his own network TV show, and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
1920: Songwriter Boudleaux Bryant was born in Shellman, GA. Bryant wrote such titles as “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “All I Have To Do Is Dream” and “Rocky Top“–many with wife Felice–on his way to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
1927: Guitarist Jim McReynolds was born in Carfax, VA. With his brother, he formed Jim & Jesse, a bluegrass duo that began recording in 1951, joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1964. They gained a Congressional Medal of the Arts in the 1990s.
1943: Four weeks after his Grand Ole Opry debut, Ernest Tubb became an official Opry member during a broadcast from Nashville’s War Memorial Auditorium.
1945: Bill Monroe held his first Columbia session, recording “Kentucky Waltz” and “Footprints In The Snow” at the Wrigley Building in Chicago. Chubby Wise played fiddle, and David “Stringbean” Akeman sits in on banjo.
1947: Hank Williams recorded “Honky Tonkin’” for the first time at the WSM Studios in Nashville for Sterling Records. He also recorded “Pan American.” The date marked the first commercial recording session for legendary fiddler Tommy Jackson.
1961: Frank Sinatra created Reprise Records. Purchased by Warner Bros., the label eventually developed country hits for such acts as Dwight Yoakam, Blake Shelton, Kenny Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot and Carlene Carter.
1965: “The Bill Anderson Show” debuted on TV, where it will remain in syndication for the next nine years.
1971: Sammi Smith went to #1 in Billboard with the Kris Kristofferson-penned “Help Me Make It Through The Night.”
1973: Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton recorded “If Teardrops Were Pennies.”
1973: Johnny Paycheck recorded “Mr. Lovemaker” in an evening session at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville.
1980: Some 200 music industry friends joined Johnny Cash at his home in Hendersonville, TN, to celebrate his 25th anniversary in show business. The centerpiece for the gathering was a 28-inch bust of Cash made from lard.
1988: Rosanne Cash earned a #1 single in Billboard with a remake of the Johnny Cash song “Tennessee Flat Top Box.”
1990: George Strait recorded “I’ve Come To Expect It From You” in an afternoon session at Nashville’s Emerald Sound Studios.
2002: Waylon Jennings died at his home in Arizona, following a lengthy battle with diabetes. Branded a musical outlaw for his renegade spirit, his raw-edged style brought him into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, just three months before his passing. He was 64.
2003: Banjo great Earl Scruggs received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2012: Mel Tillis received a National Medal of Arts from president Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, D.C.
