Dave Dudley (born David Darwin Pedruska;
May 3, 1928 – December 22, 2003)
was an American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...
singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
. His
signature song
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...
was "
Six Days on the Road", and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues", "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", and "Me and ol' C.B.". Other recordings included Dudley's
duet
A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...
with
Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking", and his own
Top 10 A top ten list is a list of the ten highest-ranking items of a given category.
Top Ten or Top 10 may also refer to:
Media
*Top 10, a common record chart for the ten most popular songs of the week in the musical chart of a country
*''America's Top ...
hit, "Fireball Rolled A Seven", supposedly based on the career and death of
Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.
Biography
Early life and rise to fame
Born in
Spencer, Wisconsin
Spencer is a village in Marathon County, Wisconsin. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,925 at the 2010 census.
The village, which lies between two marshes (Spencer Marsh to the northwest and M ...
, United States,
Dudley's grandparents came from
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was na ...
in East Prussia, Germany. At the age of 11, he was given a guitar by his grandfather and learned to play the chords.
He had a short career as a semi-professional baseball player.
After he suffered an arm injury, he was no longer able to play baseball.
He then decided to pursue a career in country music.
He was one of the earliest artists to record for the
National Recording Corporation
National Recording Corporation was an American record label, established in Atlanta in 1958.
See also
* List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record lab ...
, with "Where's There's A Will" (1959).
Dudley was injured once again in 1960, this time in a car accident, setting back his career in music.
He first appeared on the Country charts in 1961 with "Maybe I Do", released by Vee Records.
He later moved to Golden Wing Records.
Height of his career
In 1963, "Six Days on the Road" became a hit for Dudley.
The song was written by Earl Green and Peanutt Montgomery. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.
In the original version of the song as recorded by Dudley the lyrics include the words "...I'm taking little white pills and my eyes are open wide..." a reference to the stimulants some truckers used to keep driving (and make their delivery times) when they needed sleep. Some remakes of the song replace these words with a reference to looking at the white lines on the road.
In 1963, Dudley moved on to
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...
. By the end of 1963, he released his first single from the label, "Last Day in the Mines".
Dudley scored more big hits in the 1960s, including "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", "Trucker's Prayer" and "Anything Leaving Town Today".
"Six Days on the Road" was subsequently recorded by several other artists including
George Thorogood and the Destroyers,
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...
,
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band, best known for their influential 1969 debut album, '' The Gilded Palace of Sin''. Although the group is perhaps best known for its connection to band founders Gram Parsons and Chr ...
and
Sawyer Brown
Sawyer Brown is an American country music band. It was founded in 1981 in Apopka, Florida, by Mark Miller (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Randall (lead guitar, vocals), Joe "Curly" Smyth (drums), an ...
.
Dudley continued to have success into the 1970s, while continuing to record for Mercury Records.
He had some country Top 10s in the 1970s, including "Comin' Down" and "Fly Away Again". By the late 1970s, his success on the charts was beginning to fade, although Dudley amassed thirty-three Top 40 Country hits.
In 1978, Dudley's name became known to the audience in Germany after the German country band
Truck Stop
A truck stop, known as a service station in the United Kingdom, and a travel center by major chains in the United States, is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made food and other services to motori ...
had a single Top 10 hit in Germany, titled "Ich möcht’ so gern Dave Dudley hör’n" ("I would like to listen to Dave Dudley so much, to
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on t ...
and
Charley Pride
Charley Frank Pride (March 18, 1934 – December 12, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he was the best-selling performer for RCA Re ...
").
Late career and death
In the 1980s, Dudley continued to record sporadically, and remained popular in concert. During this time, he was elected to the 'Nashville Teamsters Truck Drivers Union', receiving a solid gold membership card from the union. During this time, he also found out that he had a big fan base in Europe, and he decided to try to appeal more to this market.
Dudley purchased Staples Lake Resort in the mid 1970s and ran a successful business/resort there until the mid to late 1980s with wife, Marie. During his ownership he also sponsored multiple country music festivals on the property.
In total, Dudley recorded more than 70 albums. However, he did not manage to reclaim his past success, and neither his single "Where's That Truck?", recorded with disc jockey Charlie Douglas,
nor the track "Dave Dudley, American Trucker", recorded in 2002 in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
, helped revive his career. Few of his hits have made it onto CDs and albums, creating a market for his vintage vinyl recordings.
Dudley died on December 22, 2003, aged 75, after suffering a heart attack in his car in a parking lot in
Danbury, Wisconsin
Danbury is an unincorporated census-designated place in Burnett County, Wisconsin, United States. The community is located in the southwest corner of the town of Swiss. Its ZIP code is 54830. As of the 2010 census, its population was 172. The m ...
.
Discography
Albums
Singles
*
APeaked at No. 13 on Easy Listening (now
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by st ...
).
References
Other sources
* ''Country Music: The Rough Guide''; Wolff, Kurt; Penguin Publishing
External links
Dudley profiled in WFMU's Diesel Sniffing SeriesCMT.com: "Six Days on the Road" Singer Dave Dudley dead at 75*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley, Dave
1928 births
2003 deaths
People from Spencer, Wisconsin
American country singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Wisconsin
National Recording Corporation artists
Jubilee Records artists
Starday Records artists
Mercury Records artists
20th-century American singers
20th-century American male singers
American people of German descent
Singer-songwriters from Wisconsin