Jerry Lee Lewis took the #1 spot on the Billboard country singles chart with Great Balls Of Fire in 1958.
Colonel Tom Parker negotiated a pay raise for Elvis Presley in 1961. Paramount agreed to pay $175,000 for each of its next three Presley pictures, and $200,000 for the two that follow them.
Bobby Bare recorded (Margie’s At) The Lincoln Park Inn in 1969.
Tammy Wynette filed for divorce from George Jones on this date in 1975.
Don Williams reached #1 on the Billboard country chart with Tulsa Time in 1979.
Merle Haggard records That’s The Way Love Goes in 1983.
Curb released Sawyer Brown’s eighth studio album, The Dirt Road in 1992. Despite featuring some great songs, it only made it to #12 on the Billboard country chart.
Dolly Parton shot the video to Romeo in 1993. The video features appearances by Billy Ray Cyrus, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea and Tanya Tucker.
Fiddler Chubby Wise died of heart failure in Bowie, MD in 1996. Linked to the classic Orange Blossom Special, he played professionally more than 50 years, working with Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Hank Snow, whose band he played with for 16 years.
Songwriter Bobby Austin died in Camas, WA in 2002. He co-wrote Tammy Wynette’s first charted single, Apartment #9, as well as Glen Campbell’s Try A Little Kindness. Austin also played bass on a number of Buck Owens’ hits.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Earl Scruggs was born in Shelby, NC in 1924. The innovative banjo man joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the 1940s, then forms a duo with Lester Flatt on the way to the Country Music Hall of Fame as one of bluegrass’ pillars.
Catherine Yvonne Stone was born in Montgomery, AL in 1953. In a protracted legal dispute as an adult, she proved she’s the daughter of Hank Williams, by Bobbie W. Jett. She subsequently uses the stage name Jett Williams.
