According to Eddy Arnold, he recorded his signature song, “Cattle Call” four times.

Eddy commented, “ I used “Cattle Call” for so many years on the radio-that’s why people have heard it so much and why when the name Eddy Arnold is mentioned—that’s the song they think of...and that’s okay.

But I have recorded “Cattle Call” four different times.

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According to Webb Pierce, he found his 1952 hit song, “Back Street Affair,” by accident.

Webb said, “I was in Nashville, Tennessee and ran into Hank Williams. He had a noon time radio show on WSM and invited me to listen to his program.  I listened to it and he sang “Back Street Affair.” I thought it was his new record -the next day I told him I liked his new record, “Back Street Affair.” He told me it wasn’t his new record, it was just a song that he liked. And he would like to record it but Fred Rose wouldn’t let him because Fred thought it might ruin his image.  But Hank said that anybody with nerve enough to record that song would have a number one record.”

“So I went back home to Shreveport and I just kept thinking about that song. So I called Paul Cohen and told him I wanted to record a song titled “Back Street Affair.” He told me to come on back to Nashville and record it because he had the publishing rights to the song.”

“Back Street Affair” became Webb’s third chart song. It entered the country music charts October 4th, 1952  and made it to number one, where it stayed for four weeks

It was Webb’s 3rd charted song and was on the country charts for 23 weeks.

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According to Sonny Throckmorton, he got the idea for “Middle Age Crazy” from watching his friends go thru some of those times.

Sonny said, “I was not personally going through being “Middle Age Crazy” at the time. I waited a little while to go thru those things.  A lot of what I write—at the time I don’t know what I’m writing about—then wham—they hit me—so I’m kind of forecasting what I’m going to be doing.

“They made a movie out of “Middle Age Crazy” with Bruce Dern and Ann Margaret...it did pretty well.”

“Middle Age Crazy> entered the country music charts for Jerry Lee Lewis October 29th, 1977 and peaked at number four.

It was Jerry Lee’s 47th charted song and was on the charts for 18 weeks.

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According to Bill Anderson, it took him three years to record his 1962 number one, “Mama Sang A Song.”

Bill commented, “For about three years, I had begged Owen Bradley to let me record a song I had written called “Mama Sang A Song.” And each time I would ask him he would say, “not now Bill—we’ll do it later.”

“So after about three years of that, we were in the recording studio,and I told him, “Owen, I would really, really like to record “Mama Sang A Song.” Now in those days you didn’t always go in with everything you were going to record....maybe two songs and then they’d ask..”what else do you have?” So I pulled “Mama Sang A Song” out at the end of the recording session. And it just sparked. It was just the right day and the right time and The Anita Kerr Singers were in the studio.  And Owen Bradley began to work  them in on the song. And he got so into the arrangement  and they went over it and over it and over it. And Finally Owen walked into the control room and said, “Okay let’s try it.”  And we got it on the first take. We only cut it one time-because he had prepared everybody so thoroughly-everybody knew what their job was.”

   Bill Anderson 

“Mama Sang A Song” entered the country music charts July 28th, 1962 and made it to number one, where it stayed for seven weeks.

It became Bill Anderson’s first number one and was on the country charts for 27 weeks.  The Decca Records single also scored a number 89 on the pop charts.

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According to Buck Owens, his 1965 number one hit, “I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail,” was written while he was on tour.

Buck commented, “Harlan Howard and his wife Jan Howard, came down to tour with me in Texas. Harlan and I had written some songs together. We were riding along and everywhere you looked, you saw those gasoline signs  that said “Put A Tiger In Your Tank.” And I had always heard the expression, “tiger by the tail.”  So I kept after Harlan Howard to write a song about “Tiger By The Tail.”  We were riding along and writing in the car that day. Jan was driving and Harlan was sitting in the back seat and he pitched a sheet of paper up to me and said “There’s your tiger by the tail.” Put some music to it and there it is.”

“So I put the music to his lyrics and I thought—well this song is alright...just another of those “sound songs”—uptempo with cute little lyrics and a lot of raunchy guitar. I recorded the song for an album and with all of the “tiger business” going on—we decided to release it “Tiger By The Tail” as a single and we did and I’ve been happy about tigers ever since.”

Buck  Owens’ “I’ve Got a Tiger By The Tail” entered the country music charts January 23rd, 1965 and  made it to number one, where it stuck for five weeks

It was Buck’s 25th charted song and was on the charts for 20 weeks.

The Capitol Records single also scored a # 25 on the pop charts

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According to Don Gibson, it took a bit of bargaining to record his own song, “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

Gibson commented, “We had been recording standard country songs and one day Chet Atkins told me we weren’t getting anywhere doing what we were doing...that this thing of recording rock and roll songs with voices was taking off and he wanted to try that one time to see what would happen.  So I told him I would try it.

I came back to Nashville with a song I had written-“I Can’t Stop Loving You.”I had also written “Oh Lonesome Me” and sent it down to him for George Jones because I didn’t want the song.  And when I got back to Nashville, they had saved “Oh Lonesome Me” for me to record and left “I Can’t Stop Loving You” just laying around. They hadn’t showed it to anybody.  And they said they wanted me to record “Oh Lonesome Me.”

“I told them that I didn’t really like “Oh Lonesome Me” but at that time I had no power at all as to what I could or could not record so I had to go along with them.  But I said I’d record “Oh Lonesome Me” if they’d let me record “I Can’t Stop Loving You” on the backside.They thought about it and finally told me I could do that since they thought “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was a “b” song anyway. So they let me put it on the backside.

“Oh Lonesome Me” entered the country music charts February 17th, 1958 and made it to number one, where it stuck for eight weeks. It was on the country charts for 34 weeks.  The flipside, “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” made the country charts one month later and peaked at # 7. it was on the charts for 14 weeks.

According to Marty Robbins, the idea for his 1959 number one hit, “El Paso,” came to him while driving thru the city.

Marty commented, “We were driving thru the city and saw the sign “El Paso City Limits.” And I thought about writing a song about the city, but by the time I had driven thru the city I had forgotten all about writing a song about it. I go back out west every Christmas. I went thru there once—then twice---and the third time we drove thru there I told myself that everytime we go thru here, I think about writing a song about El Paso but never did it. This time I’m gonna write it.”

“All of a sudden, I said “out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl.” This happened so quick that I didn’t even write it down.  It happened so fast—it made me drive even faster. I was so excited. I must have been driving  85 or 90 miles an hour by the end of the song. ..because I was so excited. It was like a motion picture. I didn’t know how it was going to end and there was no stopping. The song just kept coming. It just flowed out like water. And I couldn’t forget the words to the song. I didn’t write it down until we got to Phoenix.”

“El Paso” entered the country music charts November 9th, 1959, made it to number one and stuck there for seven weeks. It was Marty’s 21st charted song and was on the charts for 26 weeks.

The Columbia Record single also scored a number one on the pop music charts.

According to Bob Wills, one of his biggest hits came about as a result of playing another song backwards.

During one of his recording sessions, A & R man Art Satherly asked Bob Wills, “Bob, give me another “Spanish Two Step—you got one?”

Bob replied “we sure have.” All the boys in the band looked at Bob and said “we haven’t got one.”

Bob told them, “Oh yes we do. We’ll just play “Spanish Two Step” backwards. What I actually meant was—you see I started “Spanish Two Step” in A and then threw it to Leon McAuliff –he went to D—on the bridge part of it. So what I had in mind—I’d start off in D. Do you know how much time we spent on the music part of “San Antonio Rose?”  I very seriously doubt it we spent more than five minutes cause we ran over it for the second time and he said “That sounds good Bob.”

“We weren’t ready but I said Okay-let’s catch it.  And then I thought how silly can a man be to call a more or less breakdown tune “San Antonio Rose.” But he wanted to call it that so I didn’t argue with him. And later on I put the words to the song.”

“San Antonio Rose” was a hit for Bob Wills in 1941. He re-recorded as “New San Antonio Rose” in 1944 and it peaked at number three.
 

Bob Wills	Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

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