Was WAKY 'country' when country was cool

[Max]

Okay, this is not a very good adaptation of Barbara Mandrell's hit, but most of us know, especially in the 60's and early 70's there was alot of country cross-over. Some of it made WAKY's playlist, some of it didn't. Having just heard 'Stand by your Man' on internet radio, what were some of your favorite 'country' songs to meander onto the WAKY airwaves? I know Rhinestone Cowboy, John Denver and early Olivia Newton-John tunes weren't even considered country hits. Imagine Charlie Rich, who had big hits on the pop side of the charts lighting the paper on which he read John Denver winning a major country award. Believe it may have been Entertainer of the Year or Male Vocalist. Seems he forgot it was a Top 40 DJ...Johnny Randolph...who was responsible for perhaps his biggest pop/country hit!

But what are some of the crossover hits YOU remember big on the Super 79?

[dudewalker1]

Max, we played a lot of country hits on WAKY but my favorite was "For the Good Times" by Ray Price. I still love that song today but I like Dean Martin's version better.
Dude Walker

[bruiser]

Marty Robbins may have been the #1 country cross over artist, as he had 13 top 40 hits on the pop charts. I recall "El Paso", "Big Iron", "Don't Worry", and "Devil Woman" on WAKY and WKLO. "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation" was heard on KLO, but WAKY wasn't in existence at that time. "El Paso" was #1 on the pop and country charts, "A White Sport Coat" was #2 on the pop charts, and "Don't Worry" was #3 on the pop charts.

Buck Owens also got some airplay. David Houston with "Almost Persuaded", Jim Reeves got lots of airplay. "Little" Jimmy Dickens hit with "Bird Of Paradise.

[Max]

Dude, don't you just love those strings? Was that one of the first 'country' hits to be heavy on strings? And I loved Marty Robbins as well, who also hit big with 'El Paso City'. What a great two artists to start this thread/poll with! ;D

[bruiser]

I just remembered The Browns got airplay with "The Three Bells (Little Jimmy Brown song)", "Scarlett Ribbons", and "The Old Lamplighter". Jim Ed went on to become a major single act in country music.

[bruiser]

Regarding strings and things on country artists recordings, I'd guess either Jim Reeves or Eddy Arnold were the first to utilize them. Eddy had some crossover hits, notably "Make The World Go Away".

Now, a little history lesson. When rock and roll first hit in the fifties, and it was like a wildfire, dozens and dozens of country stations changed to the rock and roll format. This severely crippled the country music industry, almost killed it as a matter of fact. Folks in Nashville realized they had to do something to take the "hillbilly" image away from the music. Most notably, Chet Atkins led the change in direction of country music. He started with Jim Reeves and The Browns, and developed the "countrypolitan" sound. IIRC, WINN took up the "countrypolitan" format. Chet, perhaps the best guitarist the world has ever known, would use anything from a few strings, to a complete orchestra on some of the recording sessions he produced. Nashville Symphony players probably never had such good paydays as when the studios started using them. LOL Chet also recorded with symphony orchestras. He especially like Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops. Go here freddie.spb.ru:8000/ and listen to "Faded Love" and "I'll Fly Away". Absolutely stunning.

Bah, the link didn't go to Chet's page, so click on Chet's albums and look for "Pops Goes Country", in the right hand column.

[Max]

Ah, yes, I am well aware of Eddy Arnold...my mom has several of his records and I remember when I was little hearing him yodeling from her room "Cattle Call". I had him in mind, but just wasn't sure who was first. Thanks!

[bruiser]

Here's another bit of music trivia. Know what the first song was that featured the fuzztone guitar? It was Marty Robbins "Don't Worry", and the break was played by one of the original Nashville Cats, Grady Martin. I always wondered if Marty's sidemen were able to recreate the fuzztone sound on the road, as there were no foot pedals available in those days.

[Mike Griffin]

There is no question that early rock and roll had a heavy country influence. Waylon was part of Buddy Holly's band and might have died in the crash. Buddy's music was his day's progressive music. Of course WAKY was top 40/30 and that just happened to be mostly Rock and Roll.

While on the Waylon thread, Willie, Johnnie Cash, and Kris Kristoferson known together as the Highwaymen all were crossover artists. Cash alone contributed greatly to top 40, Ring of Fire, I Walk The Line, A Boy Named Sue, all great stuff spanning many years.

Delbert McClinton played harmonica on "Hey Baby", "Love Me Do" and others. He's now a big country artist.

Top 40 was about great music. Look at the stories about how the format developed. Todd Storz noticed how often customers kept playing the same songs on Juke Boxes. Top 40 was about what people wanted to hear not about a genre. When I was six years old we stopped at a truck stop while driving to Florida. A waitress there was playing "Yellow Bandana" over and over. That's how you could tell what was good. Marty Robbins was hot, "El Paso" was a great story song. Johnny Horton was white hot until he died with "The Ballad of New Orleans," "North To Alaska," "Big Iron," "Sink The Bismark." Forget about it.

When you heard "The Ballad of the Green Berets," "Almost Pursuaded," "Easy Lovin," all those Don Williams hits. I'm not going to include Lonnie Donegan's "DOES YOUR CHEWING GUM LOSE ITS FLAVOUR ON THE BEDPOST OVERNIGHT." "Counting Flowers On The Wall," or "The Tennese Birdwalk," chirp chirp (I suppose I have included them). When you heard them they were not country, they were what people wanted to hear. Program Directors and Music Directors were keyed into that. What did people want to hear?

[Ben Pflederer]

OK Mike, how about Lory London's hit of "Whole World In His Hands", that was played constantly on the juke boxes, which was way before your time , but it was "Top 20" in those days. Was this also a cross-over concern? It was on country stations.

[bruiser]

Laurie London, despite the name, he was a guy, had an international hit with that song. It was one of the songs that transcended genres and made the cut on just about any format that was played back in the day.

[bruiser]

An interesting story about Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. I read this a long time ago. It seems that Marty and Johnny had a bit of a rivalry about who was the best songwriter. They decided to settle it by seeing who could write the best western song. Johnny wrote and recorded "Don't Take Your Guns To Town", a fine effort, but Marty wrote and recorded "El Paso". Marty followed up with "Big Iron". I think there is no doubt who gave who a lesson in western song writing.

[John Quincy]

Not one of my faves, but "Happiest Girl In The Whole USA" by Donna Fargo shows up on many of the early '70s WAKY airchecks.

Is it my imagination or did Bill Bailey play more country crossovers on his show than other jocks?

[bruiser]

The Duke played a lot of country music on his show. He brought stuff from home and played it. Most of it was the real deal, none of the sweetened up stuff. I think there's an aircheck of him saying something about WAKY being to cheap to buy real music like he just played, which happened to be a Hank Williams Sr. song. I think I recall that correctly.

[Mike Griffin]

El Paso rates as one of my all time favorites.

Unfortuneatly WAKY did play "Happiest Girl In The Whole USA." I remember it in the "A" stack at WAKY. The A's had a little faster rotation when I was on and somehow that song didn't fit in. But hey, that's probably why I never hit the big time, can't follow a format.

I remember "Whole World In His Hands." Seems like it played all the time when I was about 4. I couldn't understand what it was about and thought it was stupid. Actually I like the song now, I didn't even like Frank Sinatra until I was 35 or so, same with that record. Can't believe it was country, but OK.

Since we're on the God side, what about "Put Your Hand In The Hand?" I don't recall the artist or if it crossed. If it didn't it should have.

This is going the other way but the Youngbloods "Get Together" was kinda country rock. Did it cross? Those guys blew an appearance on Johnny Carson. I tuned in to watch them and Johnny said the won't be on. They didn't like the sound or lighting and "NBC wiped there noses and sent them home."

"Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," Jimmy Rogers.

"Big John," Jimmy Dean

"Detroit" and "500 Miles Away From Home" Bobby Bare.

"A Fool Such As I" and "He'll Have To Go," Jim Reeves.

"Georga On My Mind," Ray Charles.

"Last Date," Floyd Cramer.

"Satan Sheets," God I hated that song and I can't recall the artist.

"Harper Valley PTA," And "Divorce," Tammy Wynette

"Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" Kenny Rogers -- my favorite.

"Yesterday When I Was Young," Roy Clark

"Running Bear," Johnny Preston

"Snowbird," Anne Murray

"Tell It Like It Is," Aaron Neville

"Kiss An Angel Good Morning," Charlie Pride...a Bill Bailey Only.

You know it's amazing to think that we had songs like "Iron Man," and "The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA" on the charts at the same time. "A Boy Named Sue" and "Born To Be Wild." Wow!!!

[Max]

Wow, Mike, some of those songs you listed I would have never considered country. As far as Satin Sheets, I believe that was Jeanne(ie?) Pruitt. I almost answered Jeannie C. Riley, but she did Harper Valley PTA. I also count Kiss an' Angel Good Morning as one of my favorites. Tell it Like it Is a country crossover? I guess maybe that song's older than I thought, or older than me anyway.

Even though I was never a country fan, I have always felt the 60's and early 70's were the best country. Everything after the early 80's started sounding like country rock, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not supposed to be...it's supposed to be country. Of course WAKY did what only WAKY could do, that is play great music rock, pop, or country...didn't matter.

Allow me to digress as I close..."Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy"...how the devil is that country? Buddy that's RAP, no matter how you cut it. (I note I left a letter off the word 'rap')

[Mike Griffin]

Jeanie Pruitt is right. What an awful song. Randoph put that one in to torture me, I know it.

"Kiss An Angel Good Morning" is a great song.

Maybe some of the stuff I listed didn't cross but I believe most of it did. If it didn't it should have, always seemed country to me.

Let's not forget Tanya Tucker "Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone." A Johnny Randolph favorite and a hit on WAKY and WINN. Randolph liked Tanya's Delta Dawn better than the pop version by Helen Reddy, we played Helen.

Dolly Parton's "Jolene" hit on WAKY.

God this is sick -- didn't Porter Wagoner's "Carrol County Accident" get some play on WAKY? Maybe just Bailey?

Crystal Gayle had several songs cross like "Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue." I've forgotten some of them.

Of course the Big Guy was Elvis. Elvis crossed both ways, up and down and sideways too. Almost anything he put out. Which brings us to Sun records. I don't know what crossed and what didn't from Sun, but a lot of the stuff that made it on the top 40 from Sun had a strong country component and some of the early artists later made their careers strictly on the country side after they faded from top 40. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Ray Price.

Anyone remember Ringo Starr's second solo album? It was almost as bad as his first. The second album was "Beaucoups of Blues" and it was country. Talk about something that sucked this was it. It doesn't make any sense but somehow I thought it belonged on someones list of crossovers. Very disapointing especially after how good his lead was on "Act Naturally." He did Buck Owens proud on that one. Too bad country stations didn't pick up The Beatles.

Jerry Reed. The Smokey and The Bandit theme, whatever that was called, and soooo many others (most I didn't like) too many to enumerate, all crossed. Before that he wrote "U.S. Male" and some other stuff for Elvis.

"Polk Salad Anne," Tony Joe White --- sucked big time. Did it cross? Maybe our top country station brethren had better taste than to play it.

Joe South songs, "These Are Not My People," "Games People Play," "Walk A Mile In My Shoes."

Lynn Anderson, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden." May have been a Bailey, but WAKY played it for sure.

Should we mention Bob Dylan? "Lay Lady Lay?" "Nashville Skyline" is a great album. "The Girl From The North Country" with Johnny Cash is one of my favorites. Of course Dylan's follow up country albums, seems like one was called "Self Portrait" didn't suck but almost did, suck-lite.

Michael Nesbit of the Monkees. Didn't "Joanne" cross?

Linda Rohnstat "Long Long Time", "Blue Bayou," a bunch.

Roy Orbison, Charlie Daniels, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ray Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, Kingston Trio; did "Cripple Creek" by The Band cross?

Roger Miller, I love Roger Miller. "King of the Road," "Kansas City Star," "Chug-A-Lug." great songs. If "England Swings" didn't cross it should have.

One last song. "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto. A big top 40 hit, I loved it. A big hit on the top 40 and a crossover. Sorry, that one was a crossover from another country. WINN and WTMT should have played too.

I'm now convinced that WAKY and WKLO were country stations that sometimes played a few other songs. Thanks Max...my whole life is turned upside down.

So where is Young Daniel King on this issue? He was PD of WINN after Moon Mullens. And where is the legendary Moon Mullens, he has been known to look in on this site from time to time.

[1240WINN]

As someone who listened to WINN a lot in those days, let me take this question from another perspective and mention a few songs that are considered pop and were played on WINN. I distinctly remember hearing "Mississippi" by John Phillips, "Joanne" by Mike Nesmith and "Looking Out My Back Door" by CCR on WINN. And one of WINN's top hits of 1975 was "I Can't Live With You But I Can't Go On Without You" by the Guess Who. And, of course, Elvis was always big on WINN.

And then don't forget about the time WINN wouldn't play "You've Never Been This Far Before" by Conway Twitty and WAKY started playing it. (I always wondered if that was just a publicity stunt cooked up by the two stations.)

I think Mike Griffin is right about Top 40 being about great music. Thank goodness for people like Johnny Randolph, Danny King, and Moon Mullins who didn't bound music by categories, but instead played what sounded good within their formats. Today, the stations are mass-programmed and have little identity of their own.

Unfortunately, a lot of what is played on country music stations today is NOT great music.

"Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy"? Yech!

[Travis]

Attn: Dude Walker

I always thought that Ray Price's 'For the Good Times' was a "Bailey Oldie" (records brought from home) because as Bailey once said, "This two-bit nickel & dime operation can't afford good music like that."

I can only recall hearing Price's tune during Bailey's show (and he played it a lot). Was it actually a part of WAKY's music or was it truly a "Bailey Oldie?"

By the way. I heard the tune so much that it actually grew on me and the Price CD is in my collection.

[bruiser]

Jim Ed Brown had one that got some airplay. The name of it is "Morning". You might remember it.

Suddenly I look into your sleepy eyes
You breathe my name and it just seems to dangle there
Then I feel your fingers running through my mind
Jumbling up my thoughts to leave them tangled there

d**n, the woman was a mind reader!!!

[Max]

Mike, I believe now I understand how 'Satin Sheets' affects you. I believe I've found the skin-crawling song that makes me want to throw-up. Actually there's two-'Coal Miner's Daughter' by Loretta Lynn and 'Coat of Many Colors' by Dolly Parton...actually ANYTHING by Dolly Parton!

[1240WINN]

Max:

Since I am primarily a country fan, I can tolerate "Satin Sheets" or "Coat of Many Colors", provided that I don't have to hear it every day.

In a similar vein with some old rock songs, "Kung Fu Fighting" used to make me want to change the station.

Nowadays, I can actually listen to it in its entirety if I only hear it every five years or so. It brings back memories of the jukebox at my junior high, where I would hear "Kung Fu Fighting" , "Sweet Home Alabama", and "Let It Ride" three times each in a half-hour. (But that still represents a wider playlist than some stations today :

And even songs by your favorite artists can grow tiresome. I am a big Johnny Cash fan, but I usually skip "I Walk The Line" if I am listening to a CD because I have heard it so much.

[Max]

I know what you mean. Kind of like too much of a good thing. 'Satin Sheets' is one of my all time old country faves (sorry, Mike) along with most of Charlie Rich's stuff, despite his juvenile behavior toward John Denver, and most early country that used strings. George Jones is a chore to listen to, and although 'Coat of Many Colors' has a spiritual storyline, it's still sung by Dolly Parton, though I really like 'Islands in the Stream' with Kenny Rogers (written by the Bee Gees).

There are indeed a few rock/pop songs that should have never been recorded. 'Run, Joey, Run' by David Geddes ("Daddy please don't, it wasn't his fault, he means so much to me...Daddy please don't, we're gonna get married...just you wait and see") is one song I found hard to stomach then and still is. Fortunately you don't hear it anymore, although it's on an anthology I have...skip it every time.

[Mike Griffin]

I have to confess that I like Dolly but it wasn't always so. When WAKY played "Jolene" I both liked it on some level and was repulsed by it because it was so country.

I haven't heard "Satin Sheets" in years (and have no desire to). It may be that I have mellowed and could appreciate it more now than when I was 20 or so and it was a hit.

I have a similar love affair with The Statlers. When "Counting Flowers On The Wall" was a hit I couldn't understand why it was played on WKLO (I wasn't a WAKY listener yet). Later, a little older, and after many other Statler songs that I like I have a new appreciation of "Flowers." About the same time I had no problem with Roger Miller's "King Of The Road."

[bruiser]

I think I would have drawn the line if either had played Ernest Tubb.

[Travis]

I consider Roger Miller's 'Dang Me' as the song that introduced me to WAKY.

During my early childhood, my parents were country music listeners and I believe it was WTMT that could be heard throughout our house. At the time, the station had an actual female personality on the air known as Ginger Callahan. I can remember her quite well even though I'm not sure of which station she was on.

Anyway. Roger Miller's 'Dang Me' was one of those songs that got my attention; especially, with the way he made those sounds with his voice. The kids in my neighborhood also liked the song, but they would listen for it on a station that played music I had never heard before.

In 1964, at age 10, Travis went WAKY. ;D

[bruiser]

Ginger Callahan. Now, there's a name from the past. She was on WTMT, and was a competent country vocalist. She made appearances around the area, opening shopping centers, car dealerships, etc. I remember her gigs mostly from the ones she did at Fontaine Ferry Park. She must have had a fairly regular job with the Park, as it seemed as if she was there at least twice a week.

[Mike Griffin]

Wait a minute...I remember a jingle from WTMT. "The home of the country gentlemen, WTMT 62-Ohhh." How could this be?

[Travis]

Taking a cue from the way Mike Griffin ran "foxhole radio" across Google, I ran Ginger Callahan across Google and there she was (Geez, anything can be found on the net these days).

Apparently, she was not only a radio personality for WTMT, and an accomplished vocalist, but could also play something called a claw-hammer banjo, and did so quite often at Renfro Valley.

I'm not sure why I'm able to remember her, and her name, after all these years, but it did seem that she was on WTMT a lot when I was a kid. It may have also had something to do with hearing a woman on the radio in those days. It was a bit unusual and my dad once remarked that he had not heard a woman on the radio since Tokyo Rose. *OuCh*

[Young Daniel King]

travis said:

Taking a cue from the way Mike Griffin ran "foxhole radio" across Google, I ran Ginger Callahan across Google and there she was (Geez, anything can be found on the net these days).

Apparently, she was not only a radio personality for WTMT, and an accomplished vocalist, but could also play something called a claw-hammer banjo, and did so quite often at Renfro Valley.

I'm not sure why I'm able to remember her, and her name, after all these years, but it did seem that she was on WTMT a lot when I was a kid. It may have also had something to do with hearing a woman on the radio in those days. It was a bit unusual and my dad once remarked that he had not heard a woman on the radio since Tokyo Rose. *OuCh*

Well guys...It appears that I'm much older than most on this site...I remember when Ginger Callahan was a jock on WKLO ...BEFORE it went rock.