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Country Music History – February 6

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FEBRUARY 6

1888: Songwriter Haven Gillespie was born in Covington, KY. In addition to the holiday standard “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” he wrote The Hoosier Hot Shots’ “Breezin’ Along With The Breeze” and the western-swing classic “Right Or Wrong.”

1916: Record executive Irving Green was born in Brooklyn, NY. In Chicago during 1944, he founded Mercury Records, a label associated with such acts as Patti Page, Shania Twain, Toby Keith, The Statler Brothers and Sammy Kershaw.

1941: Songwriter Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery was born. His credits include Emmylou Harris’ “One Of These Days,” Tanya Tucker’s “What’s Your Mama’s Name” and George Jones & Tammy Wynette’s “We’re Gonna Hold On.”

1956: George Jones joined “The Louisiana Hayride.”

1962: Wynn Stewart recorded “Another Day, Another Dollar.” The release was ranked among country’s 500 greatest singles of all-time in the Country Music Foundation’s 2003 book “Heartaches By The Number.”

1963: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs made their first on-screen appearance on the CBS sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” in order to sing their new song, “Pearl Pearl Pearl.” They had already been performing the theme song.

1971: Dolly Parton scored her first #1 single in Billboard with “Joshua.”

1973: Tom T. Hall recorded “Ravishing Ruby” at Mercury’s Nashville studio.

1976: Ronnie Milsap joined the Grand Ole Opry.

1980: George Jones recorded “He Stopped Loving Her Today” at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, then bet producer Billy Sherrill that the record won’t go to #1.

1989: Patty Loveless quietly married record producer Emory Gordy in Gatlinburg.

1989: MCA releases George Strait’s “Beyond The Blue Neon” album.

1995: Collin Raye recorded “I Think About You” and “Not That Different” in Nashville.

2001: Don Henley and Glenn Frey fired guitarist Don Felder from The Eagles. Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh remained in the band, although they were hired guns, and not members of the corporation.

2001: Diamond Rio’s album “One More Day” was released.

2005: “Ring Of Fire” songwriter Merle Kilgore dies of congestive heart failure in Mexico, where he sought radical cancer treatment. The manager of Hank Williams Jr., he also wrote “More And More,” “Wolverton Mountain” and “Let Somebody Else Drive.”

2016: Just days after cancelling all his February shows, Merle Haggard played a concert in Las Vegas, struggling through six songs before giving the stage to Toby Keith. The last performance of Haggard’s life included “Ramblin’ Fever” and “Sing Me Back Home.”