JANUARY 21
1919: Bass player and guitarist Louis Innis was born in Seymour, IN. After a stint in Red Foley’s band, he worked on recordings by Eddy Arnold, Kitty Wells and Hank Williams, including “Move It On Over,” “Lovesick Blues” and “I Saw The Light.”
1939: Distinctive disc jockey Wolfman Jack was born with the given name Robert Smith in Brooklyn, NY. Associated with rock & roll and “The Midnight Special,” he’s namechecked in Don Williams’ 1980 country hit “Good Ole Boys Like Me.”
1942: Mac Davis was born in Lubbock, TX. After writing the Elvis Presley hits “In The Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” he became an actor, TV host and recording artist. His biggest country hits include “It’s Hard To Be Humble” and the autobiographical “Texas In My Rear View Mirror.”
1949: At his first Capitol recording session, held the same day he signed a contract with the firm, Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded his first hit, “Tennessee Border,” at the label’s studios on Melrose in Hollywood.
1950: Red Foley topped the Billboard country chart with “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy.”
1954: Bill Monroe bought his second farm, a 288-acre property in Sumner County, TN, with a $10 down payment for the $15,660 purchase. He shared the home with bass player Bessie Lee Mauldin while his wife Carolyn remained on his other farm.
1957: Patsy Cline netted first prize on the weekly CBS-TV show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” with her performance of “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
1974: George Richey, Carmol Taylor and Norro Wilson finished writing “The Grand Tour,” a song Richey started the previous weekend on a trip to Memphis.
1985: Waylon Jennings began four days of recording at the Cartee 3 Studios in Nashville, yielding “The Devil’s On The Loose” and “Drinkin’ And Dreamin’.”
1987: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame added Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Rick Nelson, Jackie Wilson, Leiber & Stoller, Carl Perkins, Clyde McPhatter, Louis Jordan, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Joe Turner, Eddie Cochran, B.B. King, Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin during a ceremony at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
1989: “She’s Crazy For Leavin’” took Rodney Crowell to #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.
1997: Colonel Tom Parker died in Las Vegas, of complications from a stroke. The controversial manager of Elvis Presley, Parker was an aggressive promoter who also had managed Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow.
2006: Kix Brooks replaced Bob Kingsley as the host of the syndicated radio show “American Country Countdown.”
