The True Story of Rudolph
A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night.
His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob's wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?" Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob's life. Life always had to be different for Bob.
Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicagoslums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.
Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make one - a storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the story doesn't end there.
The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print,_ Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer_ and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.
In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn't end there either.
Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and DinahShore , it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas." ~ Source: Unknown
Another Day, Another Dollar
Artist: Wynn Stewart (1962)
In early 2011, Volkswagen ran a commercial for the Volkswagen Jetta, playing an endless rotation cycle of the song, Another Day, Another Dollar, to promote their popular automobile. The commercial ran steady for about three weeks. Ever wonder who does that song?
Wynn Stewart. Stewart hailed from Los Angeles, California (CA) where he began playing country music at Edison Park High School.
Many years on the circuit running the triangle of Los Angeles, CA, Bakersfield CA, Las Vegas, Nevada, (NV), led to many line-up changes, many label changes and eventually the opening of his own club, The Nashville Nevada Club in Las Vegas, NV, where Wynn Stewart and the West Coast Playboys held a 6-night a week residency playing honky-tonk music.
Stewart never hit it big nationally, but he did put out some great records and even was able to give a young Merle Haggard a start in the music business as The West Coast Playboys' one-time bassist.
In 1962,Wynn Stewart & The West Coast Playboys released Another Day, Another Dollar on the Challenge label. The song made it to number 27 on the country charts and features the fine guitar work of Roy Nichols, who was a guitarist with Merle Haggard's Strangers from 1963-1987.
By Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Nov. 16, 2011.
Cold Hard facts of Life, The
Artist: Porter Wagoner (1967)
Returning early from a business trip, a man picks up champagne to surprise his wife. Another customer at the liquor store is buying wine for a party, he says with a wink. When the first guy realizes the "party" is being thrown by his philandering wife, he greets her with a knife instead of champagne.
Goin' Steady
Artist: Faron Young (1953)
Faron Young often described being drafted as a fourth event of 1952, after securing a recording contract with Capitol Records, moving to Nashville, Tennessee and scoring Goin' Steady as national a hit.
Goin' Steady was recorded at the Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel on October 12, 1952. According to Hubert Long, the song's title came from a magazine in a hotel room he and Faron Young shared while on tour.
Faron thumbed through the magazine and saw an article on going steady and soon began creating a song to suit the thought.
Hillous Butram, front-man for Hank Snow's Rainbow Ranch Boys and a former member of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys was in the adjoining room. Hearing Faron playing a guitar and singing the same lines repeatedly, Butram knocked on their door, confirmed Young was writing a song and said, "Sing me your first line."
"Me and my baby are goin' steady, Faron sang. "We ain't married, but we're gettin' ready to tie the knot and I'm gonna make her my own." Butram offered, "Now that I've found her, I'm gonna keep her. Finders, keepers, losers weepers." Faron liked the line and wrote it down. Butram and Long helped Faron finish the song. Goin' Steady went all the way to No. 2 on the Billboard country chart that year for Faron Young.
By Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Dec. 12, 2011.
Ida Red
What’s in a Name
Ida Red’s story begins in the civil war era as a traditional free form folk song of unknown origins. The first recording of Ida Red dates back to 1924 when Fiddlin’ Powers and Family recorded the tune for Victor Records.
The first instrumental recording was done in 1927 by the Dyke’s Magic City Trio for the Brunswick Label. American folklorist Alan Lomax, founder of Folkways Records, documents another version in the Negro Bad Men chapter of his book. Bob Wills took Ida Red in the early 30′s and set it to a 2/4 beat, making it a faster fiddle based square dance number, with drums, which he added to the band in 1935.
Using the folk process, Bob lifted lyrics from an 1878 F. W. Root parlor song called Sunday Night. Bob and the Playboys recorded Ida Red in 1938 for the Vocalion label. During Bob’s short lived Hollywood career, he and the Playboys performed this version in two of his films, Go West, Young Lady and Blazing the Western Trail.
Fourteen years later Bob would record a second version called Ida Red likes the Boogie. This song stayed on the charts for 22 weeks peaking at number 10.
Nineteenyears later, a die hard Bob Wills fan and musician quickened the beat and rewrote the lyrics of Ida Red to tell the story of a car race. He recorded the song on May 21, 1955 for Leonard Chess of the Chess Record label. The song went to number 1 on the R&B charts and number 5 on the Billboard charts. His name – Chuck Berry.
The song is Maybellene. With this reworked version of Ida Red, Chuck Berry became the first African American to integrate the Billboard chart. Rolling Stone listed Maybellene as number 18 out of the 500 most important songs in Rock n Roll history.
By Lee Roy Chapman
She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)
Artist: Gary Stewart (1975)
Stewart sits at the bar knocking 'em back while watching his wife flirt with other men across the room. He tries to convince himself the attention they give her makes him proud, but "I'm not man enough to stop her from doing me wrong," he sings, as his voice trembles.
Your Cheating Heart
Artist: Hank Williams (1953)
Williams supposedly wrote this song in his car, while complaining to his fiancée, Billie Jean, about his first wife, Audrey. After mentioning Audrey's "cheating heart," he dictated the lyrics to Billie Jean, who scribbled away in the passenger's seat.
Listen
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Another Day, Another Dollar
