The Carter Family holds its final recording session in New York City in 1941.
Tammy Wynette gets her first #1 single in Billboard as a solo artist with “I Don’t Wanna Play House” in 1967.
The Original Carter Family and Bill Monroe entered the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1970. Also during the fourth annual Country Music Association awards, Merle Haggard won four trophies – taking Entertainer and Male Vocalist of the Year, while “Okie From Muskogee” wins both Single and Album of the Year. The ACMs were hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on NBC-TV’s “The Kraft Music Hall”
In 1974, Decca record producer Owen Bradley and Pee Wee King enter the Country Music Hall Of Fame during the first Country Music Association awards ceremony held at the Grand Ole Opry House. That year “Country Bumpkin” ended up a double-winner as Single of the Year to Cal Smith and Song of the Year to songwriter Don Wayne.
With Conway Twitty’s estate embroiled in legal bedlam in 1994, 2,000 items were auctioned off for $1 million at Twitty City in Hendersonville, TN. Among them: a 1985 Pacer, for $27,500; and a script for the movie “Sex Kittens Go To College,” went for $1,800.
MCA released Josh Turner’s debut album, “Long Black Train” in 2003. Josh sang the song for his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. He received a standing ovation in the middle of the song! You can see Josh perform his debut hit and many others at Paramount Bristol next October! Get your tickets here.
We lost Freddy Fender to cancer in 2006. The Tex-Mex singer, who delivered many of his records in Spanglish, had two million-sellers in 1975: “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” and “Before The Next Teardrop Falls”
Hank Williams Jr., Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Bob DiPiero (“Blue Clear Sky”), Mac McAnally (“Old Flame”) and Christian artist Dottie Rambo are inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2019, Dwight Yoakam and Larry Gatlin join the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame during an event at the Music City Center. The 2019 class also includes composers Rivers Rutherford, Marcus Hummon, Sharon Vaughn and Kostas.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Bill Justis was born in Birmingham, AL in 1926. Best known for his 1957 instrumental hit “Raunchy,” he is the arranger on Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me” and Kenny Rogers’ “Love The World Away”
And in 1938 Melba Montgomery was born in Iron City, TN. The hard-edged traditionalist scores a Mothers Day hit in 1974 with “No Charge” and teams with George Jones in 1963 for “We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds”
