FEBRUARY 5
1923: Claude King was born near Keithville, LA. He earned a half-dozen hits during the 1960s, with “Wolverton Mountain” emerging as his signature recording.
1938: Roy Acuff made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the Dixie Tabernacle in Nashville. Within days, sacks of mail begin arriving at WSM radio, requesting the boy who sang “Great Speckled Bird” be invited back. Acuff sideman Clell Summey becomes the first to play Dobro on the Opry.
1940: Jimmie Davis recorded “You Are My Sunshine” in New York.
1941: Henson Cargill was born in Oklahoma City, OK. The former deputy sheriff earned his only #1 single in 1968 with the social statement “Skip A Rope.”
1963: Patsy Cline recorded “Sweet Dreams” at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville.
1964: Burl Ives recorded “A Holly Jolly Christmas” at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville. The song was featured in December on the NBC-TV special “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
1971: Sara Evans was born in Boonville, MO. 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.”
1972: “Gee, I hope it ain’t twins again”: Loretta Lynn has a #1 country single in Billboard with “One’s On The Way.”
1973: Willie Nelson began recording his “Shotgun Willie” album at the Atlantic Recording Studios in New York. The project included his first version of “Whiskey River.”
1976: Elvis Presley recorded “Hurt” in the Jungle Room at Graceland Mansion in Memphis. He also recorded “For The Heart,” which The Judds were destined to remake as their first hit, “Had A Dream (For The Heart).”
1977: George Jones & Tammy Wynette nabbed a #1 country single in Billboard with “Near You.”
1979: Conway Twitty recorded “Don’t Take It Away” at Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios.
1991: Arista released Diamond Rio’s debut single, “Meet In The Middle.”
1994: John Michael Montgomery’s “I Swear” began a four-week stay at #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.
1998: Patty Loveless receives a platinum album for “The Trouble With The Truth.”
2000: The [Dixie] Chicks’ “Cowboy Take Me Away” rose to number one on the Billboard country singles chart.
2012: Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton sang “America, The Beautiful” and Kelly Clarkson performed the national anthem before the Super Bowl at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The New York Giants won against the New England Patriots, 21-17.