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Pretty Paper (song)
"Pretty Paper" is a song written by country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson in 1963. After being signed to Monument Records, Nelson played the song for producer Fred Foster. Foster pitched the song to Roy Orbison, who turned it into a hit. Nelson later recorded his own version of the song in November 1964. Content The song tells the story of a street vendor who, during the Christmas season, sells pencils and paper on the streets. In October 1963, while walking in his farm in Ridgetop, Tennessee, Nelson was inspired to write the song after he remembered a man he often saw while he lived in Fort Worth, Texas. The man moved with rollers, selling paper and pencils in front of Leonard's Department Store. In 2013, the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' identified the man as Frankie Brierton, of Santo, Texas. Both of Brierton's legs were atrophied below the knee due to childhood meningitis. Background and recording Early in 1963, Nelson was signed by Fred Foster to the label Monument Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright. Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the ''Billboard'' Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), " R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in the United States. The weekly tracking period for sales was initially Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. This tracking period also applies to compiling online streaming data. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming, is readily available on a real-time basis, is also tracked on a Friday to Thursday cycle effective with the chart dated July 17, 2021 (previously Monday to Sunday and before July 2015, Wednesday to Tuesday). A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by ''Billboard'' on Tuesdays but post-dated to the following Saturday. The first number-one song of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 was " Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don McLean
Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1971 hit song " American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minute folk rock "cultural touchstone" about the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation. His other hit singles include "Vincent" (about Vincent van Gogh), "Dreidel", and "Wonderful Baby"; as well as his renditions of Roy Orbison's "Crying" and the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You". McLean's composition " And I Love You So" has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Helen Reddy, Glen Campbell, and others. In 2000, Madonna had a hit with a rendition of "American Pie". In 2004, McLean was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In January 2018, BMI certified that "American Pie" and "Vincent" had reached five million and three million airplays respectively. On Nov 22nd 2022 in Nashville, TN McLean was inducted into Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Musical roots McLean's grandfather and fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randy Travis
Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Active from 1978 until being incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 50 singles on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including 16 that reached the No. 1 position. Considered a pivotal figure in the history of country music, Travis broke through in the mid-1980s with the release of his album ''Storms of Life'', which sold more than four million copies. The album established him as a major force in the neotraditional country movement. Travis followed up his successful debut with a string of platinum and multi-platinum albums. He is known for his distinctive baritone vocals, delivered in a traditional style that has made him a country music star since the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, Travis saw a decline in his chart success. In 1997, he left Warner Bros. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Leroy Gilley (March 9, 1936 – May 7, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well. Among his biggest hits are " Room Full of Roses", " Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time", and the remake of the Soul hit " Stand by Me". Gilley charted 42 singles in the top 40 on the US Country chart. He was a cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl McVoy, and Jimmy Swaggart. Biography Early life and the rise to fame Gilley was born to Arthur Fillmore Gilley (November 27, 1897 – February 2, 1982) and Irene Gilley ( Lewis; September 11, 1900 – August 14, 1985) in Natchez, Mississippi. For many years, Gilley lived in the shadow of his well-known cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, a successful rock and roll singer and musician in the 1950s and ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'' on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album. Born in Delight, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as " The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the ''Billboard'' Country Chart, ''Billboard'' Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are " Universal So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretty Paper
''Pretty Paper'' is the first Christmas album and 24th studio album by country singer Willie Nelson. It was also his last release of the 1970s. Nelson reunited with producer/arranger Booker T. Jones, with whom he had collaborated on the acclaimed '' Stardust'' album released the year before. The self-composed title track had been a hit Christmas song in 1963, when it was recorded by Roy Orbison. Nelson had previously recorded the song in 1964. Track listing Side one #" White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) – 2:45 #"Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith) – 2:25 #"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Johnny Marks) – 2:11 #"Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont) – 2:11 #"Here Comes Santa Claus" (Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman) – 1:53 #" Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes, Jay Johnson) – 2:38 Side two #"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie) – 2:12 #"Frosty the Snowman" (Steve Nelson, Jack Rollins) – 2:25 #"Silent Night" (Joseph Mohr, Franz Xavier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Velma Williams Smith
Velma Smith (July 27, 1927 – July 31, 2014, née Williams) was an American country musician and guitarist. Smith was the lone female member of the RCA Studio B's " A-team" of studio musicians during the era of the Nashville Sound. She played rhythm guitar on numerous top hits such as Eddy Arnold's "Make the World Go Away", Jim Reeves' "I Love You Because" and Hank Locklin's "Please Help Me, I'm Falling". Williams was born in Epley Station, Kentucky. She married Hal Smith in 1948 and took his surname. During the late 1940s and early 1950s she was a member of the bands of Ernest Tubb, Carl Smith, and Hank Snow. Velma Smith was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum The Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum (MHOF) in Nashville honors all musicians regardless of genre or instrument. The MHOF timeline starts with the beginning of recorded music and inductees are nominated by current members of the American Feder ... in 2016. References External links * as Vel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thing Called Love", " Alabama Wild Man", "Amos Moses", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male), "Ko-Ko Joe", " Lord, Mr. Ford", "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for the 1977 film ''Smokey and the Bandit'', in which Reed co-starred), " The Bird", and " She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)". Reed was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Reed was announced as an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame in April 2017; he was officially inducted by Bobby Bare on October 24. Early life Reed was born in Atlanta and was the second child of Robert and Cynthia Hubbard. Reed's grandparents lived in Rockmart and he would visit them from time to time. As a small ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Drake
Roddis Franklin "Pete" Drake (October 8, 1932 – July 29, 1988), was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player. One of the most sought-after backup musicians of the 1960s, Drake played on such hits as Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden", Charlie Rich's " Behind Closed Doors", Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay", and Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man". Drake was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022, 33 years after his death. Career Drake was born in Augusta, Georgia, the son of a Pentecostal preacher. In 1950, he drove to Nashville, heard Jerry Byrd on the Grand Ole Opry, and was inspired to buy a steel guitar. Later in the 1950s, he organized the country music band Sons of the South in Atlanta, Georgia, which included future country stars like Jerry Reed, Doug Kershaw, Roger Miller, Jack Greene, and Joe South. In 1959, he moved to Nashville, joined the Nashville A-Team, and went on the road as a backup musician for Don Gibson, Marty Robbins, and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hargus "Pig" Robbins
Hargus Melvin Robbins (January 18, 1938 – January 30, 2022), known by his nickname "Pig," was an American session keyboard player. Having played on records for many artists, including John Stewart, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Patti Page, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, J.J. Cale, John Hartford, Mark Knopfler, Ween, Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller, David Allan Coe, Moe Bandy, George Hamilton IV, Sturgill Simpson, Conway Twitty, and Al Hirt. He was blind, having lost his sight at age four due to an accident involving his father's knife. Life and career Robbins was born on January 18, 1938, in Spring City, Tennessee. He learned to play piano at age seven, while attending the Nashville School for the Blind. He played his first session in 1957, with his first major recording being George Jones's " White Lightning". Thereafter he played keyboards for scores of country music artists. Between 1963 and 1979, Robbins also rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily a guitarist, but he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele, and occasionally sang. Atkins's signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Sk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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