SEPTEMBER 23
1927: Victor released the first two singles recorded during the historic Bristol sessions in August. One featured a gospel group, the other paired Ernest Stoneman with The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers.
1930: Ray Charles was born in Albany, GA. Best known for his work in jazz and rhythm & blues, he brought attention to country with his album “Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music” and records “Seven Spanish Angels” with Willie Nelson.
1935: Bob Wills held his first recording session with The Texas Playboys, cutting 13 songs in Dallas, TX. Among the selections: “Maiden’s Prayer.”
1943: Julio Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain. The international Latin star joined Willie Nelson on the million-selling 1984 single “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before,” which won the Country Music Association’s Vocal Duo of the Year award.
1947: Songwriter Pat Alger was born in LaGrange, GA. He went on to write Kathy Mattea’s “Goin’ Gone,” Trisha Yearwood’s “Like We Never Had A Broken Heart” and Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” and “The Thunder Rolls,” among others. He entered the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.
1952: Hank Williams recorded “Take These Chains From My Heart,” “Kaw-liga” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart” during what proved to be his final recording session, at the Castle Studio in Nashville’s Tulane Hotel.
1972: Conway Twitty’s version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” ascended to #1 on the Billboard country singles chart.
1974: It’s Elvis Presley giveaway day: he bought every Lincoln Continental Mark IV on the lot at Shilling Lincoln-Mercury in Memphis, plus five Cadillacs, and gave them all away.
1975: Songwriter Ron Peterson filed suit against Conway Twitty, charging that he–not Twitty–wrote the hit “Touch The Hand.”
1986: George Strait recorded “All My Ex’s Live In Texas” and “Am I Blue” in a session at Nashville’s Sound Stag.
1989: Rodney Crowell went to #1 on the Billboard country chart with a remake of Buck Owens’ “Above And Beyond.”
1992: Del Reeves filed suit against Billy Ray Cyrus, claiming the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer owed him 8% of the retail price of his first album, plus 15% of his other receipts for helping Cyrus obtain his recording contract.
1993: Garth Brooks began three days of taping at Dallas’ Texas Stadium for his second TV special, “This Is Garth Brooks, Too!,” which includes man-made rain and fire. Among the ticket-buyers during the run: Miranda Lambert.
1996: George Strait recorded “Carrying Your Love With Me” at Nashville’s Emerald Sound.
1998: Waylon Jennings walked off CBS-TV’s “The Late, Late Show,” hosted by Tom Snyder, when the amount of air time he was told he would receive was cut by two-thirds. His departure left Snyder and crew with 15 minutes to fill.
1998: Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, George Morgan and former Grand Ole Opry chief Bud Wendell joined the Country Music Hall of Fame during the national telecast of the Country Music Association Awards.
1998: Steve Wariner’s “Holes In The Floor Of Heaven” won Single and Song of the Year from the Country Music Association during the 32nd annual awards on CBS at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. The (Dixie) Chicks also won twice.
2004: Grand Ole Opry member Roy Drusky died at the Highland Manor Nursing Home in Portland, TN. A silky vocalist, he earned a dozen hits in the early-1960s and wrote the Faron Young singles “Alone With You” and “Country Girl.”
2020: Drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland died at his home in Jackson, TN. He played on such Johnny Cash hits as “Ring Of Fire,” “One Piece At A Time” and “A Boy Named Sue,” as well as recordings by Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins and The Statler Brothers.
