Roy “Rabbit” Acuff started at wide receiver as Knoxville’s Central High Bobcats beat the rival Wildcats for the first time in five years. After the 1924 game, Acuff climbed a three-story building and painted the score, 13-0, on top.
Radio station WSM hosted the first DJ Convention in Nashville in 1952. The event eventually morphed into Country Music Week, a series of events that includes the Country Music Association awards show.
June Carter held her first solo recording session, cutting Let Me Go, Lover in 1954.
Nashville Rebel made its national debut in 1966 with Waylon Jennings in the leading role. Others in the picture: Archie Campbell, Sonny James, Cousin Jody, Loretta Lynn, Tex Ritter, Porter Wagoner, The Wilburn Brothers and Faron Young.
Minnie Pearl and Jeannie C. Riley appeared in New York on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show in 1970. Merle Haggard, who had been scheduled, refused to perform when producers asked him to do a dance number celebrating “Oklahoma”
Charley Pride recorded I’ll Be Leaving Alone and She’s Just An Old Love Turned Memory in 1976.
Bobby Bare recorded The Gambler in 1977 at Nashville’s Columbia Studio B, one year before it would become a hit for Kenny Rogers.
Speaking of Kenny Rogers, Lady reached the #1 position on the Billboard chart on November 22, 1980.
Conway Twitty recorded I Don’t Know A Thing About Love during the evening hours at Nashville’s Sound Stage in 1983. His daughter, Joni provided backing vocals. It would get released the following July and become his 32nd #1 hit.
Keith Whitley married Lorrie Morgan at Nashville’s Calvary Methodist Church in 1986. They held a reception at the Opryland Hotel, then headed for a honeymoon in Florida.
Pam Tillis began recording what would be her highest ranking album (so far), Sweetheart’s Dance in 1993. It produced five charting singles. A song called, I Was Blown Away was pulled from radio after the Oklahoma City bombings.
Kathy Mattea rode the Santa Train in 2008, bringing Christmas gifts to children in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
In 2013 a tribute to George Jones, originally intended as his final concert, closes with Alan Jackson performing He Stopped Loving Her Today at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. The lineup included Garth Brooks, Jamey Johnson, Josh Turner, George Strait, Eric Church, Brad Paisley, Vince Gill and Dierks Bentley, and more.
Songwriter Jeff Pennig died in Nashville in 2018. His credits included John Schneider’s Them Good O’ Boys Are Bad, Clay Walker’s This Woman And This Man and Highway 101’s This Side Of Goodbye.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael was born in Bloomington, IN in 1899. Carmichael wrote Willie Nelson’s Grammy-winner, Georgia On My Mind.
Songwriter Terry Stafford was born in Hollis, OK in 1941. He wrote George Strait’s Amarillo By Morning and Buck Owens’ Big In Vegas.
