Blue Suede Shoes
"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock-and-roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955. It is considered one of the first rockabilly records, incorporating elements of blues and pop music of the time. Perkins' original version of the song was on the Cashbox Best Selling Singles list for 16 weeks and spent two weeks in the number two position. Elvis Presley performed his version of the song three different times on national television, it was recorded by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, among many others. Johnny Cash planted the seed for the song in the fall of 1955, while Perkins, Elvis Presley and other Louisiana Hayride acts toured throughout the South. Cash told Perkins of a black airman, C. V. White, whom he had met when serving in the military in Germany, who had referred to his military regulation airmen's shoes as "blue suede shoes". Cash suggested. Perkins replied, "I don't know anything about shoes. How can I write a song about shoes?"When Perkins played a dance on December 4, 1955, he noticed a couple dancing near the stage.
Between songs, he heard a stern, forceful voice say, "Uh-uh, don't step on my suedes!" He looked down and noted that the boy was wearing blue suede shoes and one had a scuff mark. "Good gracious, a pretty little thing like that and all he can think about is his blue suede shoes", thought Perkins. That night Perkins began working on a song based on the incident, his first thought was to frame it with a nursery rhyme. He considered, discarded "Little Jack Horner... " and "See a spider going up the wall..." settled on "One for the money..." Leaving his bed and working with his Les Paul guitar, he started with an A chord. After playing five chords while singing "Well, it's one for the money... Two for the show... Three to get ready... Now go, man, go!" he broke into a boogie rhythm. He grabbed a brown paper potato sack and wrote the song down, writing the title out as "Blue Swade". According to Perkins, "On December 17, 1955, I wrote'Blue Suede Shoes'. I recorded it on December 19", for Sun Records. Sun's producer, Sam Phillips, convinced Perkins to change the lyric from "go, boy, go" in the first take of the song to "go cat go" in the second, the one released.
Perkins' recording of "Blue Suede Shoes" was released in early 1956, as Sun 234. Two copies of the song on 78-rpm records were arrived broken, he soon discovered that the song was available in the newer 7-inch microgrooved 45-rpm format and was disappointed that he didn't have a copy in the older, more substantial 78-rpm format. In Jackson and Memphis, radio stations were playing the flip side of the record, "Honey Don't." In Cleveland, however, disc jockey Bill Randle was featuring "Blue Suede Shoes" prominently on his nightly show, before January was over the Cleveland distributor of the record asked Phillips for an additional 25,000 copies."Shoes" became the side of choice throughout the South and Southwest. On February 11 it was the number two single on Memphis charts. Perkins made four appearances on the radio program Big D Jamboree on station KRLD in Dallas, where he played the song every Saturday night and was booked on a string of one-nighters in the Southwest; the Jamboree was broadcast from the Dallas Sportatorium, with about 4,000 seats, it sold out for each of Perkins' performances.
Music shops in Dallas ordered a huge number of copies of the record, at one point it was selling at a rate of 20,000 copies per day. A Song Hits review of the song, published on February 18, stated that "Perkins has come up with some wax here that has hit the national retail chart in record time. Interestingly enough, the disk has a measure of appeal for pop and r.&b. customers."On March 17, Perkins became the first country artist to reach the number three spot on the rhythm and blues charts. That night and his band first performed "Blue Suede Shoes" on television, on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. Perkins was booked to appear on The Perry Como Show on NBC-TV on March 24, but on March 22 he and his band were in a serious automobile crash on the way to New York City, resulting in the death of a truck driver and the hospitalization of both Perkins and his brother. While Perkins recuperated from his injuries, "Blue Suede Shoes" rose to number one on most pop, R&B and country regional charts. "I was a poor farm boy, with'Shoes' I felt I had a chance but there I was in the hospital," Perkins recalled bitterly.
It held the number two position on the Billboard Hot 100 and country charts. Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" held the number one position on the pop and country charts, while "Shoes" did better than "Heartbreak" on the R&B charts. Perkins never attained the stardom of Presley, according to Perkins, "had everything, he had the looks, the moves, the manager, the talent. And he didn't look like Mr. Ed, like a lot of us did, Elvis was hitting them with sideburns, flashy clothes, no ring on the finger. I had three kids." After Presley hit the chart with his version of "Blue Suede Shoes," Perkins became known more for his songwriting than for his performing. By mid-April, more than one million copies of "Shoes" had been sold. "Blue Suede Shoes" was the first million-selling country song to cross over to both the rhythm and blues and the pop charts. He became the first Sun Records performer to reach this milestone. Sam Phillips retained the rights to "Blue Suede Shoes", although it was represented by the New York house of Hill & Range as part of t
Will You Love Me Tomorrow
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" known as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was recorded in 1960 by the Shirelles, who took their single to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; the song is notable for being the first song by a black all-girl group to reach number one in the United States. It has since been recorded by many artists over the years, including a 1971 version by co-writer Carole King. In 1960, the American girl group the Shirelles released the first version of the song as Scepter single 1211, with "Boys" on the B-side; the single's first pressing was labelled "Tomorrow" lengthened later. When first presented with the song, lead singer Shirley Owens did not want to record it, because she thought it was "too country." She relented. However, Owens recalled on Jim Parsons' syndicated oldies radio program, Shake Rattle Showtime, that some radio stations had banned the record because they had felt the lyrics were too sexually charged.
The song is in AABA form. This version of the song, with session musicians Paul Griffin on piano and Gary Chester on drums, as of 2009 was ranked as the 162nd greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1960, by Acclaimed Music, it was ranked at #126 among Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Billboard named the song #3 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time; the song appeared on the soundtracks of Michael Apted's Stardust and Emile Ardolino's Dirty Dancing. Bertell Dache, a black demo singer for the Brill Building lyricists, recorded an answer song entitled "Not just Tomorrow, But Always", it has been claimed by some historians that Dache was a pseudonym for Epic recording artist Tony Orlando, whose recording of the original song had not been released as Don Kirshner thought the lyric was convincing only as sung by a woman. However, an ad for United Artists Records which appeared in Billboard during 1961 featured a photo of the singer which indicated that Dache was not Tony Orlando.
The Satintones, an early Motown group recorded an answer song called "Tomorrow and Always," which used the same melody as the original but neglected to credit King and Goffin. Following a threat of litigation pressings of the record included proper credit, it was withdrawn and replaced with a different song. The Satintones' versions are included in the box set The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 1: 1959–1961. In 1971 Carole King, the co-writer of the song, recorded a version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for her landmark studio album Tapestry, with Joni Mitchell and James Taylor on background vocals. King's version of the song was taken at a slower tempo and with a more contemplative, melancholy feel than in the Shirelles original recording, it gained considerable album-oriented rock airplay due to the large-scale commercial success of the album. The song became a feature of King's live shows. Taylor recreated his part during their joint arena-based Troubadour Reunion Tour of 2010. In the 1984 comedy Police Academy Copeland dance to the song in the Blue Oyster Bar.
In the 2013 Broadway Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the song is featured in part four times: once during its writing, once during King recording a demo of it with the Shirelles performing it, King singing and playing it during an bad time in her marriage with Goffin. No other song is featured as in the musical. Carole King – piano, vocalsAdditional musiciansDanny "Kootch" Kortchmar – acoustic guitar Russ Kunkel – drums Charles "Charlie" Larkey – bass guitar Joni Mitchell – background vocals James Taylor – acoustic guitar, backing vocals Brenda Lee released her version in 1961 as a single. Helen Shapiro recorded a version for her 1962 album'Tops' with Me. Little Eva released a version on her 1962 album Llllloco-Motion. Dusty Springfield recorded the song for her 1964 debut solo album A Girl Called Dusty, she recorded a version with French lyrics entitled Demain tu peux changer for her 1965 EP Mademoiselle Dusty, which included four songs she had recorded in English. Cher recorded a version for her 1966 album Chér.
Jackie DeShannon recorded a version for her 1966 album Are You Ready for This?. Sandy Posey recorded the song for her 1968 album Looking at You; the Four Seasons had a number 24 hit with the song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. Linda Ronstadt released a version on Silk Purse, it reached number 98 in number 111 in Billboard. Roberta Flack's version hit number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972 as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow". Melanie Safka reached number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973 and reached the top 40 in the United Kingdom in 1974. Jody Miller made the charts with a remake of the song in 1975. Morningside Drive released a dance version of the song in 1975, which reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Dana Valery recorded a dance version that hit number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. Dave Mason had a number 39 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978 with his remake, it was his final top 40 hit on that chart. Brotherhood of Man released their version of the song as a single in 1980.
It subsequently featured on their Good Fortune album. Laura Branigan recorded a cover of the song on her 1984 album Self Control. Joe Walsh recorded the song for his 1992 album Songs for a Dying Planet. Cilla Black recorded a cover for her 1993 studio album Through the Years. Laura Nyro recorded a version in 1994, released on her posthumous 2001 album Angel In the Dark; the Bee Gees recorded a cover for the Carole King tribute album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King in
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is an American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", "Because They're Young", he had sold 12 million records by 1963. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008. Born in Corning, New York, he began playing the guitar at the age of five. In 1951, his family moved to Tucson, to Coolidge, Arizona. At the age of 16 he obtained a Chet Atkins model Gretsch guitar and formed a duo and Duane, with his friend Jimmy Delbridge. While performing at local radio station KCKY, they met disc jockey Lee Hazlewood, who produced the duo's single, "Soda Fountain Girl", recorded and released in 1955 in Phoenix. Hazlewood produced Sanford Clark's 1956 hit, "The Fool", featuring guitarist Al Casey, while Eddy and Delbridge performed and appeared on radio stations in Phoenix before joining Buddy Long's Western Melody Boys, playing country music in and around the city.
Eddy devised a technique of playing lead on his guitar's bass strings to produce a low, reverberant "twangy" sound. In November 1957, Eddy recorded an instrumental, "Movin' n' Groovin'", co-written by Eddy and Hazlewood; as the Phoenix studio had no echo chamber, Hazlewood bought a 2,000-gallon water storage tank which he used as an echo chamber to accentuate the "twangy" guitar sound. In 1958, Eddy signed a recording contract with Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood to record in Phoenix at the Audio Recorders studio. Sill and Hazlewood leased the tapes of all the singles and albums to the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records. "Movin' n' Groovin'" reached number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1958. S. A.". The follow-up, "Rebel'Rouser", featured overdubbed saxophone by Los Angeles session musician Gil Bernal, yells and handclaps by doo-wop group the Rivingtons; the tune became Eddy's breakthrough hit. It sold over one million copies. Eddy had a succession of hit records over the next few years, his band members, including Steve Douglas, saxophonist Jim Horn and keyboard player Larry Knechtel would go on to work as part of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew.
According to writer Richie Unterberger, "The singles –'Peter Gunn','Cannonball','Shazam', and'Forty Miles of Bad Road' were the best – did their part to help keep the raunchy spirit of rock & roll alive, during a time in which it was in danger of being watered down." On January 9, 1959, Eddy's debut album, Have'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel, was released, reaching number 5, remaining on the album charts for 82 weeks. On his fourth album,'Songs of Our Heritage', each track featured him playing acoustic guitar or banjo. Eddy's biggest hit came with the theme of the movie Because They're Young in 1960, which featured a string arrangement, reached a chart peak of number 4 in America and number 2 in the UK in September 1960, it became his second million-selling disc. Eddy's records were even more successful in the UK than they were in his native US, in 1960, readers of the UK's NME voted him World's Number One Musical Personality, ousting Elvis Presley. In 1960, Eddy signed a contract directly with Jamie Records, bypassing Hazlewood.
This caused a temporary rift between Hazlewood. The result was that for the duration of his contract with Jamie, Eddy produced his own singles and albums. Duane Eddy and the Rebels became a frequent act on The Dick Clark Show. During the 1960s, Eddy launched an acting career, appearing in such films as A Thunder of Drums, The Wild Westerners, Kona Coast, The Savage Seven, two appearances on the television series Have Gun–Will Travel, he married singer Jessi Colter in 1961, the same year he signed a three-year contract with Paul Anka's production company, whose recordings were issued by RCA Victor. It was in the early days of recording in the RCA Victor studios that he renewed contact with Lee Hazlewood, who became involved in a number of his RCA Victor singles and albums. Eddy's 1962 single release, " Guitar Man", co-written with Hazlewood, earned his third gold disc by selling a million records. In the 1970s, he produced album projects for Waylon Jennings. In 1972, he worked with Al Gorgoni, rhythm guitar, on BJ Thomas's "Rock and Roll Lullaby".
In 1975, a collaboration with hit songwriter Tony Macaulay and former founding member of The Seekers, Keith Potger, led to another UK top ten record, "Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar". The single, "You Are My Sunshine", featuring Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, hit the country charts in 1977. In 1986, Eddy recorded with Art of Noise, remaking his 1960 version of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn"; the song was a Top Ten hit around the world, ranking number 1 on Rolling Stone's dance chart for six weeks that summer. "Peter Gunn" won the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental of 1986. It gave Eddy the distinction of being the only instrumentalist to have had Top 10 hit singles in four different decades in the UK.. The following year, Duane Eddy was released on Capitol. Several of the tracks were produced by Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Ry Cooder, Art of Noise. Guest artists and musicians included John Fogerty, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ry Cooder, James Burton, David Lindley, Phil Pickett, Steve Cropper, original Rebels, Larry Knechtel and Jim Horn.
The album included a cover of Paul McCartney's 1979
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or "the King". Presley was born in Tupelo and relocated to Memphis, with his family when he was 13 years old, his music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.
His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years with some of his most commercially successful work, he held few concerts however, guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse compromised his health, he died in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Presley is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country and gospel, he won three competitive Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love Presley in the two-room shotgun house built by his father, Vernon Elvis Presley, in preparation for the birth. Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an close bond with his mother; the family attended an Assembly of God church. On his mother's side Presley's ancestry was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman. Gladys and the rest of the family believed that her great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was Cherokee. Vernon's forebears were of Scottish origin. Gladys was regarded by friends as the dominant member of the small family.
Vernon moved from one odd job to the evincing little ambition. The family relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner and sometime employer, he was jailed for eight months, while Elvis moved in with relatives. In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average", he was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance; the ten-year-old Presley was dressed as a cowboy. He recalled placing fifth. A few months Presley received his first guitar for his birthday. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, I watched people, I learned to play a little bit.
But I would never sing in public. I was shy about it."In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, for sixth grade. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis, he played and sang during lunchtime, was teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. By the family was living in a Black neighborhood. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, he was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates and took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques; when his protégé was twelve years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was succeeded in performing the following week. In November 1948, the family moved to Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Lauderdale Courts. Enrolled at L. C. Humes Hig
Baby Let's Play House
"Baby Let's Play House" is a song written by Arthur Gunter and recorded by him in 1954 on the Excello Records label and covered by Elvis Presley the following year on Sun Records. Presley's version differs from the original: Elvis started the song with the chorus, where Gunter began with the first verse, he replaced Gunter's line "You may get religion" with the words "You may have a Pink Cadillac", referring to his custom-painted 1955 Cadillac auto, serving as the band's transportation at the time. Baby Let's Play House was on the fourth issue of a Presley record by Sun, became the first song recorded by Elvis to appear on a national chart, when it made #5 on the Billboard Country Singles chart in July 1955. Elvis Presley - lead vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar Scotty Moore - lead guitar Bill Black - double bass Buddy Holly recorded a cover of this song in 1955 at the Jim Beck Studio in Dallas. Holly's cover, titled as "I Wanna Play House with You" was cut as a demo for Columbia Records and sounds much like the Elvis version.
The song was recorded by Australian Lonnie Lee on Leedon Records in early 1960. The version was not unlike Elvis' in many respects, it was popular at Lee's shows and a version of him singing it in 1960 on Australia's first Rock'n'Roll TV Show,'Six O'Clock Rock' is still extant. John Lennon used the line, "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man," from this song for the opening line of The Beatles song "Run for Your Life" from their 1965 album Rubber Soul; the Newbeats released a version of the song on their 1965 album, Big Beat Sounds by The Newbeats. Ace Cannon released an instrumental version on his 1967 album Memphis Golden Hits. Tom Petty included a cover of the song on the 1995 box set Playback. Petty acknowledges Elvis's influence over him after meeting Presley at the age of ten in the summer of 1961 on the set of Follow That Dream; the song was lip synched by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the 2005 TV biopic Elvis: The Early Years, in a scene of Presley's 1955 Odessa Auditorium performance.
In 2008, a Spankox remix of it made #84 in the UK. In 2014, Drake Bell released a cover of "Baby Let's Play House" on Muzooka.com. Baby Let's Play House at Discogs Arthur Gunter version Baby Let's Play House at Discogs Elvis Presley version
Donna Fargo
Donna Fargo is an American country singer-songwriter, best known for a series of Top 10 country hits in the 1970s. These include "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" and "Funny Face," both which became crossover pop hits in 1972. Fargo has won major awards since her debut in the late 1960s, including one Grammy Award, five awards from the Academy of Country Music and one award from the Country Music Association. Fargo never thought about singing professionally. Fargo attended High Point College headed west to study at the University of Southern California. After getting her degree, she became a teacher at Northview High School in Covina, California progressing to head of the English Department. While in California, she met Stan Silver, who became her manager when Fargo was performing in California clubs and first seeking a career in music. At this point, Fargo was still teaching. Fargo and Silver married in 1968, she soon started to appear around Los Angeles, while teaching. She went to Phoenix in 1966, adopted the name Donna Fargo, recorded her first single.
Her first major concert was with Ray Price, she began playing in Southern California. Fargo recorded for a few small labels in the early 1960s, including Ramco and Challenge, but songs like "Who's Been Sleeping on My Side of the Bed" did not catch fire. Although her original singles were not successful, the Academy of Country Music Awards named her the "Top New Female Vocalist" award in 1969. In 1972, Fargo recorded a single for the Decca label before achieving her breakthrough that year. In 1972, one of Fargo's self-penned songs, "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" was picked up by Dot Records. Fargo was signed to the label, the single was released the same year, she was one of the few female country singers to write her own material at the time, one of the few country singers to cross over to the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in a big way, which she did in 1972 with "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U. S. A.". The song peaked at No. 1 on the country music chart. An album of the same name was released following the song's success.
The album was certified gold by the RIAA in early 1973. The follow-up single, "Funny Face," peaked at No. 1 on the country chart, became a bigger pop hit than her previous single, peaking at No. 5. Both singles were certified gold by the end of the year. Fargo never made the Top 40 in pop music again, but she placed over a dozen more singles in the country Top Ten in the 1970s, most written by herself. Fargo's second album, My Second Album, was released in 1973, peaking at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, as well as spawning the No. 1 country singles, "Superman" and "You Were Always There." The songs both charted on the pop chart. That same year, her third album, was released; the album spawned two Top 10 Country hits, "Little Girl Gone" and "I'll Try a Little Bit Harder." The same year, the Grammy Awards gave Fargo the Best Female Country Vocal Performance award for "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA." She was named "Top Female Vocalist" by the Academy of Country Music Awards. Fargo became the fifth most successful female country artist of the 1970s, according to Billboard Magazine, behind Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Lynn Anderson.
For a better part of the 70s, Fargo stayed high on the charts with songs like "It Do Feel Good," and "Mr. Doodles." Fargo had another successful album with Dot in 1974, releasing Miss Donna Fargo, which spawned three Top 10 hits, including "You Can't Be a Beacon If Your Light Don't Shine." This song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart. In 1975, she released Whatever I Say Means I Love You, her fifth and final album for the DOT label, that included "What Will the New Year Bring?". Dot Records was acquired by ABC and there was a noticeable drop-off in chart placings for Fargo, in 1976, she moved to Warner Bros. Records. Fargo came out with the On the Move album; the next year her next album, Fargo Country was released. The album spawned her first No. 1 Country hit since 1974, "That Was Yesterday," followed by another Top 10 Country hit, "Mockingbird Hill," which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Country Chart in 1977. Fargo's 1978 album, Shame on Me yielded two Top 10 hits, the title track and "Do I Love You," which peaked at No. 2.
Recognized as one of the leading country songwriters of the era, Fargo's songs have been recorded by Tammy Wynette, Sonny James, Kitty Wells, Tanya Tucker, Jody Miller, Marty Robbins, Dottie West and other artists. Additionally everything Fargo recorded for years was self-penned, although by the latter half of the 1970s she was recording covers of songs from writers as diverse as Stonewall Jackson, Vaughn Horton, Bill Enis and Lawton Williams, Paul Anka, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Fargo had her own musical television show, which ran for a year, beginning in 1978. Fargo is one of only five country female vocalists to have her own television series. Kitty Wells was the first, in 1968, Dolly Parton followed with a show in 1976. In 1978, Fargo was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she experienced a brief illness, but with medical treatment and her husband's help, Fargo made it back to excellent health, returning to a more limited schedule in 1979 and another Top 10 hit. For the next few years the successes came at a lower level.
Although this serious neurological illness caused a deep decline in her promotional work, Fargo vowed to not let the disease get to her. In 19
Music genre
A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Academics have argued that categorizing music by genre is inaccurate and outdated. Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways; the artistic nature of music means that these classifications are subjective and controversial, some genres may overlap. There are varying academic definitions of the term genre itself. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green distinguishes between form, he lists madrigal, canzona and dance as examples of genres from the Renaissance period. To further clarify the meaning of genre, Green writes, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511, the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form."
Some, like Peter van der Merwe, treat the terms genre and style as the same, saying that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language." Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can differentiate between genres. A music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques, the style, the cultural context, the content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will include a wide variety of subgenres. Timothy Laurie argues that since the early 1980s, "genre has graduated from being a subset of popular music studies to being an ubiquitous framework for constituting and evaluating musical research objects". Among the criteria used to classify musical genres are the trichotomy of art and traditional musics. Alternatively, music can be divided on three variables: arousal and depth.
Arousal reflects the energy level of the music. These three variables help explain why many people like similar songs from different traditionally segregated genres. Musicologists have sometimes classified music according to a trichotomic distinction such as Philip Tagg's "axiomatic triangle consisting of'folk','art' and'popular' musics", he explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. The term art music refers to classical traditions, including both contemporary and historical classical music forms. Art music exists in many parts of the world, it emphasizes formal styles that invite technical and detailed deconstruction and criticism, demand focused attention from the listener. In Western practice, art music is considered a written musical tradition, preserved in some form of music notation rather than being transmitted orally, by rote, or in recordings, as popular and traditional music are. Most western art music has been written down using the standard forms of music notation that evolved in Europe, beginning well before the Renaissance and reaching its maturity in the Romantic period.
The identity of a "work" or "piece" of art music is defined by the notated version rather than by a particular performance, is associated with the composer rather than the performer. This is so in the case of western classical music. Art music may include certain forms of jazz, though some feel that jazz is a form of popular music. Sacred Christian music forms an important part of the classical music tradition and repertoire, but can be considered to have an identity of its own; the term popular music refers to any musical style accessible to the general public and disseminated by the mass media. Musicologist and popular music specialist Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects: Popular music, unlike art music, is conceived for mass distribution to large and socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners and distributed in non-written form, only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of'free' enterprise... it should ideally sell as much as possible.
Popular music is found on most commercial and public service radio stations, in most commercial music retailers and department stores, in movie and television soundtracks. It is noted on the Billboard charts and, in addition to singer-songwriters and composers, it involves music producers more than other genres do; the distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in marginal areas such as minimalist music and light classics. Background music for films/movies draws on both traditions. In this respect, music is like fiction, which draws a distinction between literary fiction and popular fiction, not always precise. Country music known as country and western, hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s; the polka is a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s, developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and particular
