FEBRUARY 14
1939: Razzy Bailey was born in Five Points, AL. Mixing both rhythm & blues and country in his vocal approach, he achieved 13 Top 10 hits from 1978-1982, including “Friends,” “Loving Up A Storm” and “She Left Love All Over Me.”
1954: Eddy Arnold recorded “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” at Thomas Production Studio in Nashville. Faron Young cut the definitive version 11 months later.
1966: Roger Miller got a whopping nine nominations in the Grammy awards, with “King Of The Road” in the running for Record of the Year. Jody Miller’s satire, “Queen Of The House,” is nominated for Best Country Vocal by a Female.
1967: Eddy Arnold attended a White House dinner in Washington, D.C., at the request of the president’s daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson. Arnold barely makes it in time after getting stuck in an elevator.
1967: Waylon Jennings recorded the Mel Tillis-written “Mental Revenge” at Nashville’s RCA Studio B during an evening session.
1979: Johnny Cash made the first of several attempts at recording “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky” at Nashville’s Jack Clement Studios.
1981: Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band performed “I’ve Done Enough Dyin’ Today” on the “Solid Gold” TV show, joined in the episode by Ronnie Milsap, Tina Turner and John Cougar Mellencamp.
1981: Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band performed “All The Gold In California” on NBC’s “Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters.”
1981: Charly McClain claimed a #1 country single with “Who’s Cheatin’ Who.”
1985: Randy Travis signed a recording contract with Warner Bros., two weeks after recording “On The Other Hand.”
1988: Kathy Mattea married songwriter Jon Vezner, who co-wrote her Grammy-winning hit “Where’ve You Been.”
1992: Rounder released the Alison Krauss + Union Station album “Every Time You Say Goodbye.”
1995: MCA released Trisha Yearwood’s “Thinkin’ About You” album.
2001: Before the last wall of the new Country Music Hall of Fame was sealed, cranes lifted Elvis Presley’s gold Cadillac, Webb Pierce’s Pontiac, and Nudie’s sign onto the third floor.
2012: Songwriter Danny Morrison died of a heart attack. Among the songs he left behind: Kenny Rogers’ “Blaze Of Glory,” Joe Diffie’s “Is It Cold In Here” and Lee Greenwood’s “You’ve Got A Good Love Comin’.”
2017: Thomas Nelson published “This Life I Live: One Man’s Extraordinary, Ordinary Life And The Woman Who Changed It Forever,” an autobiography penned by Rory Lee Feek, of the duo Joey+Rory.
2018: Troy Gentry’s widow, Angela Gentry, filed suit in Philadelphia against Sikorsky Aircraft and Keystone Helicopter, charging that a design flaw was responsible for the Montgomery Gentry singer’s September 2017 death. Less than a week later, she also filed suit against an event promoter in connection with the helicopter crash.
