Ray Price~ "You Took My Happy Away"

Uploaded on Oct 17, 2011

 Tom Page 

From the 1967 album "Touch My Heart"

Ray Price (born January 12, 1926) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music.

Some of his well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "For the Good Times", "Night Life", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and—now in his late 80s—continues to record and tour.

Ray Price
Background information
Birth name	Ray Price
Also known as	The Cherokee Cowboy
Born	January 12, 1926 (age 87)
Origin	Perryville, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Country, Western swing
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Years active	1948–present
Associated acts	Johnny Bush, Merle Haggard, Rosetta Tharpe, Harlan Howard, George Jones, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck

 

Biography

1940s–50s success

Price, born in Perryville, Texas, served with the U.S. Marines from 1944–1946, and began singing for KRBC in Abilene, Texas during 1948.

He joined the Big D Jamboree in Dallas in 1949. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams.

When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.

In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck and Johnny Bush. Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song "Night Life".

Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me". He later developed the famous "Ray Price Shuffle," a 4/4 arrangement of honky tonk music with a walking bassline, which can be heard on "Crazy Arms" (1956) and many of his other recordings from the late 1950s.

1960–2000s: Nashville sound to gospel

Ray Price exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame

During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called Nashville sound, singing slow ballads and utilizing lush arrangements of strings and backing singers. Examples include his 1967 rendition of "Danny Boy", and "For the Good Times" in 1970 which was Price's first country music chart No. 1 hit since "The Same Old Me" in 1959.

Written by Kris Kristofferson, the song also scored No. 11 on the popular music chart and featured a mellower Price backed by sophisticated musical sounds, quite in contrast to the honky tonk sounds Price had pioneered two decades before.

Price had three more No. 1 country music successes during the 1970s: "I Won't Mention It Again", "She's Got To Be A Saint", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me." His final top ten hit was "Diamonds In The Stars" in early 1982.

Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Today he is singing gospel music and has recorded such songs as "Amazing Grace", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Farther Along" and "Rock of Ages" [1].

In 2006, Price was living near Mount Pleasant, Texas and still performing in concerts throughout the country. In 2009, Price made two performances for the Fox News show Huckabee.

The first was with the Cherokee Cowboys and host Mike Huckabee, and he performed "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches By The Number". Weeks later he performed with the Cherokee Cowboys and Willie Nelson (again with Huckabee playing bass guitar).

This time they performed duets of "Faded Love" and "Crazy".

Price worked on his latest album, Last of the Breed, with fellow country music singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.

This album was released on March 20, 2007 by the company Lost Highway Records. The two-disc set features 20 country classics as well as a pair of new compositions. The trio toured the U.S. from March 9 until March 25 starting in Arizona and finishing in Illinois. This was Price's third album with Nelson and first album with Haggard.

Cancer

On November 6, 2012 Ray Price confirmed that he is fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he has been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months.^[1]

An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home.

Said Price "Thats not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that."^[1]

The 86-year old Country Music Hall of Famer also told the newspaper "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it -- I ain't old!"^[1]


Price has retained a positive outlook and hopes to play as many as a hundred concert dates in 2013.

Source: Wikipedia 

 

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Tony Booth~ "There Goes My Everything"

Published on Jan 8, 2013

 RADOVICHY 

http://www.musicstack.com/album/johnny+booth/country+67
From The Album : Country ' 67
Known as Johnny Booth at that Time.

Tony Booth (b. February 7, 1943 in Tampa, Florida) is an American country music singer who participated in Buck Owens' "Bakersfield sound" revolution.

Tony Booth
Born	February 7, 1943 (age 69)
Origin	Tampa, Florida
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1970–1977
Labels	MGM, Capitol
Associated acts	Gene Watson

 

Early years

As a boy, Booth showed his talent by winning a contest in New Port Richey, Florida for playing guitar at age 14. After high school, he attended the University of New Mexico with the intent of becoming a schoolteacher.

But he decided to give music a try, and began his music career with the Mel Savage Band. Before long, he was touring with Jimmy Snyder.

Booth's first single, "Wishful Thinkin'" (backed with "I Think I Can") and album, Country '67 was released under the stage name "Johnny Booth" by Universal City Records in 1967.

 It featured a cover of Engelbert Humperdinck's "There Goes My Everything", a version of which had been released months earlier by Ray Price, one of Booth's longtime influences.

The album, produced by Cliffie Stone, retains the vestigal sound of Rockabilly that Country music was moving away from at that time, ironically toward the softer sound then being pushed by artists such as Price.

When his first album did not yield a chart position, Booth formed a band called Modern Country in 1968 and performed for a time in Las Vegas, Nevada before moving to Los Angeles, California.

The band, which renamed itself the Tony Booth Band, became the house band at L.A.'s Palomino Club. He cut a single with K-Ark Records, "Big Lonely World" (backed with "It's Alright") but it also had no chart success.

Country Success

That changed in 1970 when his first single for MGM Records, Merle Haggard's song about interracial love, "Irma Jackson" (backed with Booth's own "One Too Many Times") reached the charts.

His band also won an Academy of Country Music award, which they would take home for three consecutive years.

An album soon followed, On The Right Track, produced by Dusty Rhodes, and in 1971 Booth won the ACM award for Most Promising Male Vocalist. He signed with Capitol Records and became one of several artists to record under Buck Owens. His first single, "Cinderella", went midway up the charts.

Booth released two albums a year for Capitol between 1972 and 1974. The first was The Key's In The Mailbox which included three hit singles. The title track reached No. 1 on Cash Box, making it his best-ranked and best-known song.

The last single from the album made it to No. 13, and "Lonesome 7-7203" from his next album peaked right behind at No. 6.

Over the next three albums, Booth produced five more singles which all charted. "When a Man Loves a Woman (The Way That I Love You)" made it to No. 19, and the next four all made the Top 50 including a cover of Doris Day's hit "Secret Love." He was also nominated for the ACM Male Vocalist of the Year award in 1973.

After two singles failed to chart, Booth's cover of Jim Croce's hit Workin' At The Car Wash Blues, made it to No. 22 and the album of the same name won an ASCAP award in 1974.

Up to that album, his recordings for Capitol were largely penned by Buck Owens, but by that time Owens was retreating from the music scene following the death of his close friend Don Rich and the net for Booth's material was cast wider.
 

Later years

Booth left Capitol in 1975 after three more singles. He was picked up by United Artists Records in 1976, and unsurprisingly left the Bakersfield sound behind.

The soaring strings didn't impress the charts, although his 1977 single "Letting Go" (backed somewhat ironically with "Nothing Seems To Work Anymore") just barely made the Top 100.

He went on to tour in Gene Watson's band and played bass and sang backup on many of his mid-1980s albums, and performed the song "Still on the Bottle" for the movie Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will? (1990).

Booth currently lives in Alvin, Texas with his wife and family, and appears frequently in the band at the Alvin Opry with his brother Larry. Tony Booth has also resumed touring on his own again playing mostly in southern states such as Texas and Oklahoma.

 Source: Wikipedia

  Sorry Could not Find the Song done by Tony Booth But Jack Greene Does it just as good.

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Johnny Swendel~ "You Drove Me to Honky Tonks"

Published on Jan 11, 2013

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http://www.musicstack.com/item/132172754

 Johnny Swendel
 
Johnny Swendel was born in Coatsville, Pa, which is almost on the border of the Mason-Dixon line, so Country music came naturally to him. Before he was five yrs old he was making guitars out of cigar boxes, putting rubber bands across them and serenading door to door, collecting pennies and nickels. 

At the age of six his parents bought him a ukulele, which he learned to play immediately. One of his happiest moments came a year later when his brother bought him his first guitar. Soon he was picking and singing for all the kids in the neighbor hood.

After world war II Johnny joined the U.S.O. special services and entertained our troops in Germany. After leaving the service he began his radio career. 

His first appearance was on the hillbilly jamboree at WBAL in Baltimore. From there he joined the old dominion barn dance on WRVA in Richmond. Then he signed to appear on the original jamboree at WWVA Wheeling, where he performed as a regular on the Saturday night sows in the Virginia theater. 

Although always soft spoken, Johnny’s powerful singing voice could be heard at the back of the theater without the use of a loudspeaker system.
Although he’s been singing professionally for more than twenty years, he never recorded before (until he was discovered by Country International Records. Last year the company released an album of folk songs entitled: Johnny’s first folk almanac” (ci-727) available on both album and 8-track tape.

This album contains many of Johnny’s fine original compositions such as the title song “ Lets put old glory back”, “ The river low” and the very unusual song “ The antique sign” we are certain you will enjoy this album. 

Nowadays when Johnny is not on the road he spends most of his time on his two hundred acre farm is eastern Pennsylvania where he loves to hunt and ride horseback. He also runs some of the best coon hounds east of the Mississippi

Source: http://www.countryinternationalrecords.com/html/putgloryback.html




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Bobby Helms~ " Fool Number One"

 

Published on Jan 11, 2013

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http://www.musicstack.com/records-cds/bobby+helms

Robert Lee Helms (August 15, 1933 - June 19, 1997) known professionally as Bobby Helm's was an American country music singer who enjoyed his peak success in 1957 with the seasonal hit, "Jingle Bell Rock". His other hits include "Fraulein" and "My Special Angel".

Bobby Helms
Birth name	Robert Lee Helms
Born	August 15, 1933
Origin	Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.
Died	June 19, 1997 (aged 63)
Genres	country
Occupations	singer
Instruments	guitar
Years active	1955-1997
Labels	Decca, Columbia, Vocalion

Biography

Born in Martinsville, Indiana into a musical family, Helms began performing as a duo with his brother, Freddie, before going on to a successful solo career in country music.

In 1956, Helms made his way to Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a recording contract with Decca Records. The following year was filled with astonishing successes. Helms' first single in 1957 titled "Fraulein" went to No. 1 on the country music chart and made it into the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

 Later that same year he released "My Special Angel", which also hit No. 1 on the country charts and entered the Top 10 on Billboard's pop music chart, peaking at No. 7.

Released just a few days before Christmas 1957, his song "Jingle Bell Rock" was a big hit. Uniquely, it also re-emerged four out of the next five years, and sold so well that it repeated each time as a top hit, and became a Christmas classic still played to this day. It took five years for this song to become a second million seller for Helms.^[1]

 It reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 21 weeks in the chart.^[1] The record gained gold disc status.^[1]

Accounts that Helms wrote and recorded the song with Hank Garland seem to be apocryphal — ASCAP and Allmusic list the writers of the song as Joseph Beal, Joseph Carlton, James Ross and James Boothe.^[2]

Helms continued touring and recording for the next three decades. His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Helms spent most of his later years living just outside of Martinsville, Indiana until his death from emphysema and asthma at the age of 63 in 1997.^[3]

He was portrayed by actor Brad Hawkins in the 2007 film, Crazy.

Source: Wikipedia

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