In January 1959, Billy Grammer scored his first and only cross-over hit. "Gotta Travel On" was his only recording to score at the top of both the country and pop music charts. Grammer was one of 13 kids raised on a 40 acre farm in Benton, Illinois. His dad was a coalminer who played the fiddle. The family had several string instruments around the house and Bill learned early in life that he could make money making music so he became proficient on banjo, mandolin and guitar.

He played for local dances before joining the Army. Following his discharge, he landed a job at WARL Radio in Arlington, Virginia, on their "Radio Ranch" program.

            
Billy Grammer

In 1955, he joined Jimmy Dean’s weekly television show in Washington D.C. The program was picked up for network distribution two years later and Monument Records signed him to a recording contract "Gotta Travel" on was based on a 19th century British tune which was earlier adapted by a group known as The Weavers.

Crammer's recording of "Gotta Travel On" entered the country music charts January 5th, 1959 and peaked at # 5. It was his first chart single and was on the country charts for 13 weeks. The record peaked at # 4 on the pop music charts on January 12th, 1959. Billy Grammer went on to place seven more songs on the country music charts thru 1969.

Bill Monroe also recorded "Gotta Travel On" in 1959 and his version made it to # 15 on the country charts. Another version by a group called Shylo barely grazed the country top 100 in 1978.

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There are more "oddities" in the music business than in any other type of business! Such an oddity is the fact that the soundtrack recording that made the name Tex Ritter a household word and provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the careers of both Ritter and actor Gary Cooper—plus being performed by Ritter on the first televised presentation of The Academy Awards—never appeared on the country music charts!

And in addition to being proclaimed a country song and being the soundtrack for one of the most popular western movies—the song also scored a No. 12 on the pop music charts.

In the 1950's, country music was still referred to as "hillbilly music." And although Dimitri Tiompkin was a trained classical composer, he actually liked the "hillbilly" side of music!

              
Tex Ritter

And when he was asked to write the musical score for a new Gary Cooper western movie, the first singer he thought of was Tex Ritter! Tiompkin thought that Tex Ritter's deep-voiced western drawl would connect with the lonesome haunting music for a western movie to be titled "High Noon."

Tex said he like "High Noon" the very first time he heard it, but didn't understand  why he was selected to perform the movie soundtrack— especially since the film included names like Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper. Country songs and country singers were often used in motion pictures in those days, but were limited to "B" pictures. Anytime an "A" film contained a song from the country music fold, a pop music star was asked to perform the tune.

The movie industry powers that be had long decided that the "hayseeds" of country music could not cut it with major run motion pictures. But in 1952, Tex Ritter was about to disprove all that! Even though he had appeared hi 60 movies, they were all in the "B" category. But Tiomkin convinced Tex that only his voice could do the movie soundtrack justice-—and justice it did!

Several years ago, I asked Tex how he came to record the song and he replied, "In 1952,1 had a phone call from a Mr. Dimitri Tiompkin, asking me to come to his home to talk about my singing a song for a movie he was scoring. The picture was "High Noon." The picture was already finished and
they were in the process of editing. I remember I took Merle Travis with me. In Mr. Tiomkin's living room—on his piano—were several albums. I saw two or three of Burl Ives, two of Merle Travis' and one of mine. So I recorded the song "High Noon," as the background for the motion picture. I introduced
it in London, England, in the summer of 1952. And in 1973 I played 31 one-nighters in Scotland and England. And my most requested song was "High Noon," the song that I had introduced and sang in public for the first time-21 years before!”

"High Noon" not only set box office records, but became the most acclaimed western film of that era, and Tex performed the song on the first televised presentation of The Academy Awards.

After the movie soundtrack recording peaked at No. 12 on the pop music charts, Frankie Laine recorded the song, which made it to No. 8 on the pop music charts. And although Frankie Laine scored the bigger hit record, it was Tex Ritter who brought "High Noon" to the forefront!

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The Everly Brothers were America's best-known and best-selling musical brother acts in both pop and country music. Phil Everly was born Jan. 19, 1939, in Chicago. The Everly Brothers have often been called "an overnight success," and although the duo became one of the most successful music acts
between 1957 and 1962, that success did not happen overnight.

Their father, Ike Everly, moved to Chicago in an effort to sustain a career in country music, but wound up in the Midwest. In 1955, he brought his family to Nashville, Tenn., hoping his singing sons might find the success that had eluded him.
 

              
Everly Brothers

Don Everly did make some marks as a writer, penning "Thou Shalt Not Steal" by Kitty Wells, two songs recorded by Justin Tubb and one for Anita Carter. Don and Phil signed a recording contract with Columbia Records, but after four songs the record label terminated their contract and released them.
Then, the man who later became The Everly Brothers' record producer turned them down the first time he heard them because he didn't like their sound. Archie Bleyer, who initially turned them down, was searching for a country music act for his Cadence Records. But after a second listen, he gave them a recording contract.

Wesley Rose, of Acuff Rose Music, took the song "Wake Up Little Susie" to Bleyer, who immediately disliked the song because of the lyrics. The song was written by husband and wife team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. Bleyer said it sounded like Susie and her boy friend had slept together at the
drive-in movie.

But the Everly Brothers recorded the tune despite Bleyer's objection. Although the record was banned by some radio stations because of its "suggestive lyrics," it entered the country music charts Sept. 30,1957, and quickly made it to the No. 1 spot, where it stayed for 22 weeks. The record was also No. 1 in pop music the week of Oct. 14, 1957.

The Everly Brothers were unique to the music business not only for their commercially crafted recordings, bi because they were one of the first consistently successful rock n' roll acts to come out of Nashville, Tenn. Their songs came from Nashville songwriters, were recorded in Nashville with
Nashville musicians, yet left their mark on both the pop and country music charts.

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A singer places 70 songs on the country music charts between 1962 and 1986— including thirteen top tens—but his very first recording does NOT make the country charts, BUT does peak at number two on the pop music charts instead- BUT under a completely different name?

Sounds like a story line for a television movie? Could be—but all that DID happen to Ironton, Ohio's Robert Joseph Bare—who came to be known to music fans as Bobby Bare. Bare began his long string of record hits with "Shame On Me" which peaked at# 19 on the country charts and also scored a # 23 on the
pop charts in 1962. Twenty four years and seventy record releases later, he was still putting songs on the charts with "Real Good," making it to # 67 on the country list in 1986.

              
Bobby Bare

But in 1959, Bobby Bare had the number two hit in pop music with "The All American Boy." And considering the fame and following that comes with having a hit record-Bare should have been on top of the world. But instead, he was somewhat less than happy-due to the confusing fact that nobody knew he was the singer on the recording- as his name did NOT appear on the record! After receiving his draft notice- Bare started thinking about his upcoming tour of duty and sat down and wrote a song he titled "The All American Boy."

According to Bobby, "Everybody thought the song was about Elvis Presley, because he had been drafted earlier. But it wasn't. The song was about me—not Elvis. I was in the Army two days after recording that song." Just before his induction, Bare's friend Bill Parsons asked Bobby to help him record some demo tapes so he could close a record deal. Bare remembered, "We spent about three hours on Parson's demo's and when we were done we had about twenty minutes of recording time left, so I told the guys I wanted to record this song I'd just written before I forgot it" The song he recorded was "The All American Boy."

When it was finished, Parsons wanted to record it on his demo tape but time had ran out. So Bare left his tape of the song with Parsons as a guide. But Parsons never recorded the tune and his demo tapes -including Bobby Bare's tape of "The All American Boy," wound up in the Fraternity Records studio.
The record company accepted the tape recordings and released "The All American Boy," and since the tapes were marked and credited to Bill Parsons-his name was printed on the label-even though it was the voice of Bobby Bare!

According to Bare, it was impossible to convince his Army buddies that his record was on the radio-especially since the name Bill Parsons was mentioned each time the record was played! "The All American Boy" peaked at # 2 on the pop charts the week of February 2nd, 1959. Ironically, Bobby Bare went on to score 70 country music hits—twelve of which also found a spot on the pop music charts-while Bill Parsons went on to obscurity!

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In 1959, a song written about an 1815 battle was about to come to life 140 years later when a schoolteacher decided to revive the tune, add lyrics and retitle his effort and the re-worked project became a No. 1 recording in BOTH pop and country music!

"The Battle Of New Orleans," Johnny Horton's only record to hit No. 1 in both pop and country music, was written about an 1815 battle in which Andrew Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans.
The tune became a folk victory song titled "The Eighth Of January" and was played by fiddlers all over the country.
 

In 1955 An Arkansas schoolteacher named Jimmy Driftwood wrote lyrics to the tune and retitled it "The Battle Of New Orleans." Four years later, Johnny Horton recorded the song for Columbia Records and
it became an immediate bit! The record entered the country music charts April 27th, 1959 and quickly climbed to No. 1, where it stayed for 10 weeks.

It was Horton's 7th country music hit and was on the country charts for 21
weeks. It was also pop music's No. 1 record on June 1st, 1959, and stayed there for
6 weeks.

              
Johnny Horton

But Johnny Horton struggled for years in the music business before enjoying the success of "The Battle Of New Orleans."

He was born John Gale Horton in Los Angeles, California in 1925. After winning a talent contest, Fabor Robison signed him to record for Cormac Records in 1951.

The company folded later that same year and Robison started Abbott Records to record Johnny.

In 1952, He moved to Shreveport, La., and joined The Louisiana Hayride. Shortly thereafter, Mercury Records took over his recording contract. His Mercury Records singles made little impact on the record buying public. In 1955, Tillman Franks took over the management of his career and things began to happen. Johnny signed with Columbia Records and his first session for the label yielded a No. 9 hit, "Honky Tonk Man."

He placed six songs on the country music charts before "The Battle Of New Orleans" finally carried him to the top of both the pop and country charts. "The Battle Of New  . Orleans" entered the country music charts April 27th, 1959, hung onto the .No. 1 spot for 10 weeks and was on the charts for 21 weeks.

Between 1956 and 1963, Johnny Horton placed 14 songs on the country charts, including three number ones. Seven of those 14 hits also placed on the pop music charts.

Horton as killed in a 1960 car crash in Texas.

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Freddy Fender

Vivian Keith, a publishing company secretary, came up with the original idea for the song as "Before The Next Tear Falls," and suggested it to writer Ben Peters, who added the "drop"' to make it "Teardrop."' According to Peters, the song was finished in a couple of days. Record producer Huey
Meaux already had the music tracks recorded when he approached Freddy Fender with the song during Fender's recording session for a rhythm and blues album. Fender was very much opposed to recording the tune, as he was not into country music and didn't want to be. He finally agreed to record the song, just to please Huey Meaux.

According to Freddy, "The recording only took a few minutes. I was glad to get it over with and I thought that would be the last of it." But that certainly was not to be the last of it!

"Before The Next Teardrop FaIls made the country charts January llth,1975 at No. 96, which was not a very good initial showing for a record that was destined to wind up in the No. 1 slot—which it made on March 15th and was there for 2 weeks. It was on the charts for 17 weeks.

The record also scored a No. 1 on the pop music charts and received a gold certification for the sales of one million copies on May 2,1975.

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