100 Fun Facts About Classic Country

Which nickname is Jimmie Rodgers best known by?

The Father of Country Music spent years as a railroad brakeman. Tuberculosis, diagnosed in 1924, pushed him off the trains and into performing full time.

In which Tennessee city did the Carter Family make their first recordings in August 1927?

Bristol drew dozens of hopefuls to talent scout Ralph Peer's sessions in the summer of 1927. They launched both the Carters and Jimmie Rodgers, which is why they are called country music's Big Bang.

Which member of the original Carter Family sang harmony and played lead guitar?

Maybelle picked the melody on the bass strings with her thumb while her fingers brushed the rhythm, a style that helped turn the guitar from a rhythm instrument into a lead one.

With which songwriter did Roy Acuff co-found Nashville's first major country publishing company in 1942?

Fred Rose supplied the publishing know-how. When the firm signed Hank Williams in 1946, he became the young singer's song editor and record producer.

Ernest Tubb's 1941 hit "Walking the Floor Over You" marked the rise of which country style?

Honky-tonk became his sound by accident. Tubb began as a Jimmie Rodgers imitator, but a 1939 tonsillectomy lowered his voice and ended his yodelling, so he wrote new songs to fit.

Which 1952 Kitty Wells hit was the first country number one by a solo woman?

It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels answered a Hank Thompson hit by blaming unfaithful men. Wells, close to quitting music, cut it mainly for the $125 session fee.

Which Alabama street musician, known as 'Tee-Tot', gave the young Hank Williams guitar lessons?

Rufus Payne played the blues on Alabama street corners, and the boy followed him around town. The blues phrasing and rhythm he passed on ran through Hank's singing for the rest of his life.

What was the name of Hank Williams's backing band?

The Drifting Cowboys began around 1938, when the teenage Hank was singing on Montgomery radio. He spent the war years working in Mobile's shipyards, then came home and rebuilt the band.

In the back seat of which make of car did Hank Williams die on New Year's Day 1953?

A Cadillac, his baby-blue 1952 model, was carrying him from Montgomery to a show in Canton, Ohio. He was 29, and the car is now preserved as a centrepiece of the Hank Williams Museum.

Which cover of a 1920s show tune became Hank Williams's first number one on the country chart?

Lovesick Blues, a pop tune from 1922, held the top spot for 16 weeks in 1949. Its success persuaded the Grand Ole Opry to hire him despite doubts about his reliability.

What was the name of the backing band that gave Johnny Cash his train-like chugging rhythm?

The Tennessee Three began as the Tennessee Two: Luther Perkins on guitar and Marshall Grant on bass, both car mechanics. The name changed in 1960, when drummer W. S. Holland joined.

At which Memphis studio did Johnny Cash audition for Sam Phillips in the mid-1950s?

Sun signed him in 1955, and the appliance salesman born J. R. Cash took the name Johnny there. His first single had 'Hey Porter' on one side.

In which Arkansas farming colony did Johnny Cash grow up picking cotton?

Dyess, a New Deal colony, gave struggling families land they might one day own. Cash, born in Kingsland, arrived at three; his boyhood home there is now open for tours.

Which song became Patsy Cline's first major hit when she sang it on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts?

Walkin' After Midnight reached No. 2 on the country chart and No. 12 on the pop chart after that 1957 broadcast. Then the hits dried up: she waited four years for another.

Which producer shaped Patsy Cline's Nashville sound after she moved to Decca Records in 1960?

Owen Bradley set her voice against smooth arrangements and the Jordanaires' backing vocals. Cline fought the polished sound at first, but it turned her into a crossover star.

Which two fellow country stars died alongside Patsy Cline in the March 1963 plane crash?

Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins had shared the bill with her at a Kansas City benefit for a late disc jockey's family. Her manager, Randy Hughes, was piloting them home to Nashville.

Which signature 1959 Marty Robbins song won the Grammy for Best Country and Western Recording?

El Paso ran more than four and a half minutes, far longer than radio singles of the day. Disc jockeys played it anyway, and it began 1960 at number one on both the country and pop charts.

Which 1982 Clint Eastwood film gave Marty Robbins his last screen role and a final top-ten hit, its title song?

Honkytonk Man took its name from Clancy Carlile's 1980 novel. Robbins sang the title song and played a studio musician, then died of a heart attack a week before the film opened.

Buck Owens and the Buckaroos pioneered which twangy electric sound, named for their home city?

Bakersfield was where Dust Bowl migrants had settled, and its bar bands played loud and electric. Owens cut his records with his own road band, shunning Nashville's string-sweetened studio polish.

Which Buck Owens number one did the Beatles cover with Ringo Starr singing lead?

Act Naturally was Owens's first chart-topper, in 1963. Decades later he and Ringo Starr recorded it again, this time as a duet.

Loretta Lynn was born in which Kentucky community, immortalised in "Coal Miner's Daughter"?

Butcher Hollow was the only world she knew until she married at 15, a month after meeting Doolittle Lynn. The couple soon left the mountains for a logging town in Washington state.

Which actress played Loretta Lynn in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter?

Sissy Spacek was picked by Lynn herself from a photograph, before Lynn had seen any of her films. She did her own singing in the part and won the Oscar for Best Actress.

Which prison held the young Merle Haggard until his parole in 1960?

San Quentin took him after a botched roadhouse burglary and a failed jail break. Caught drunk on prison home brew, he landed in solitary, then won parole in 1960 and turned to music.

Which California governor granted Merle Haggard a full pardon in 1972?

Ronald Reagan wiped the ex-convict's record clean once he had become a country star. That same year astronaut Charles Duke carried a tape of Haggard performing aboard Apollo 16.

Which 1969 Merle Haggard number one took aim at hippies and draft-card burners?

Okie from Muskogee topped the country chart for four weeks. Haggard gave shifting accounts of how seriously he meant it, at times calling it a spoof and at others a patriotic song.

Which sparse 1975 Willie Nelson concept album did Columbia reluctantly release?

Red Headed Stranger sounded so bare that Columbia executives took it for a demo. Nelson's contract gave him creative control, so it came out untouched and produced his first number one single.

Whose band did Willie Nelson join as a bassist after moving to Nashville in 1960?

Ray Price co-owned Pamper Music, the publisher that had just signed Nelson as a songwriter, and the bass job in his band, the Cherokee Cowboys, came with the deal. Roger Miller passed through the same band.

What was country music's first platinum album, released in 1976?

Wanted! The Outlaws was a repackaging job: RCA gathered mostly older tracks by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser to cash in on a trend. It sold a million.

Whose band was Waylon Jennings playing bass in when he gave up his seat on the plane that crashed in 1959?

Buddy Holly's parting joke was that he hoped the tour bus would freeze up, and Jennings shot back that he hoped the plane would crash. The exchange haunted him for decades.

Which song written by the Big Bopper gave George Jones his first number one in 1959?

White Lightning reached number one that April. Its writer never saw it happen: J. P. Richardson, the Big Bopper, had died in a plane crash two months earlier.

Which mournful 1980 ballad took George Jones to number one and won him a Grammy?

He Stopped Loving Her Today arrived when addiction had wrecked his health. It helped make him the CMA's Male Vocalist of the Year twice running.

Which 1968 number one became Tammy Wynette's signature song?

Stand by Your Man, with its plea to forgive wayward husbands, landed at the height of the women's liberation movement and drew harsh criticism in some quarters. It is also heard in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces.

Which Epic Records producer signed Tammy Wynette in 1966 and cut her first single, 'Apartment No. 9'?

Billy Sherrill heard the unknown beautician pitch songs in his office and signed her. Within two weeks he had also renamed her: Wynette Byrd became Tammy Wynette.

Which fellow country star did Tammy Wynette marry in 1969 and later record No. 1 duets with?

George Jones and Wynette divorced in 1975, yet went back into the studio together. Their duet 'Golden Ring' reached number one the year after the split.

Whose weekly syndicated TV show did Dolly Parton join in 1967, replacing singer Norma Jean?

Porter Wagoner and his rhinestone suits made her a television regular, but she soon outshone the host. She left in 1974 after seven years, though he went on producing her records under contract.

Which Dolly Parton hit was a farewell to her duet partner?

I Will Always Love You marked her break from her television partner of seven years. Whitney Houston's 1992 version, cut for The Bodyguard, turned it into a number one pop smash.

What was the title of Parton's 1967 debut album?

Hello, I'm Dolly carried her first Top 40 country hit, 'Dumb Blonde', a jab at the stereotype. Oddly for so prolific a songwriter, it was one of only two tracks on the album she had no hand in writing.

Before country stardom, Charley Pride played professionally in which sport?

Baseball took him to the Negro American League as a teenage pitcher. He never reached the majors as a player, but years later he bought his way in as a part-owner of the Texas Rangers.

Conway Twitty built his stage name from the names of two towns, in which two states?

Arkansas and Texas hold the towns of Conway and Twitty. He joined them in 1957 as a rockabilly hopeful chasing Elvis Presley's success, eight years before he turned to country.

Which singer won four straight CMA Vocal Duo of the Year awards with Loretta Lynn in the 1970s?

Conway Twitty arrived in country as a former pop idol with a 1958 million-seller behind him, and country DJs were sceptical at first. He went on to forty number ones on Billboard's country chart.

Before going solo, Glen Campbell was a session guitarist in which LA studio group?

The Wrecking Crew put his guitar on records by Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys. In 1964 he even went on tour as a Beach Boy, standing in for Brian Wilson.

Kris Kristofferson studied at Oxford's Merton College on which prestigious scholarship?

Rhodes scholar, Army captain and helicopter pilot, he was two weeks from teaching literature at West Point when he quit for Nashville. There he swept floors as a janitor at Columbia's studios.

Which radio announcer, 'the Solemn Old Judge', founded the Grand Ole Opry in 1925?

George D. Hay was no judge: he was a young former newspaperman with no legal training. In 1927 he gave the show its lasting name, a joke on the grand opera heard just before it.

Which president played piano when the Grand Ole Opry House opened in 1974?

Richard Nixon played 'Happy Birthday' for his wife, Pat, and pulled out a yo-yo for Roy Acuff. The Opry had just left the Ryman, its home since 1943.

Under what name did the Ryman Auditorium open in 1892?

The Union Gospel Tabernacle was built for the revivalist Sam Jones, largely with riverboat captain Tom Ryman's money. When Ryman died in 1904, Jones proposed renaming the hall in his honour.

Which network first carried the Grand Ole Opry nationally, in 1939?

NBC Radio carried one segment of the show, named The Prince Albert Show for its tobacco sponsor and headlined by Roy Acuff. A year later Hollywood made a film about the Opry.

Bill Monroe named his band, the Blue Grass Boys, for the nickname of which home state?

Kentucky is the Bluegrass State, and the genre took its name from his band. The sound found its last piece in 1945, when Earl Scruggs brought his three-finger banjo picking into the group.

Which Major League Baseball team did 'Singing Cowboy' Gene Autry found in 1961 and own for decades?

The California Angels, in the familiar telling, came to him by accident: he went after the radio rights to a new Los Angeles team for his station and ended up owning the club.

Which two stars co-hosted the country variety show Hee Haw when it launched in 1969?

Buck Owens and Roy Clark were CBS's choice. The network dropped the show two years later in a purge of rural programmes, but it moved to syndication and ran for two more decades.

Which guitarist's thumb-and-finger picking, heard on Cincinnati radio, inspired the signature style of Chet Atkins?

Merle Travis picked the melody with one finger over a thumbed bass line. The teenage Atkins, listening in Georgia, worked out a variation of his own that used extra fingers.

Which soul pianist topped the US album chart in 1962 with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music?

Ray Charles drew sales that record dealers compared to the early Presley discs. A single from the album also reached number one on the pop chart.

Which pop trio of brothers wrote 'Islands in the Stream', the 1983 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton duet?

The Bee Gees wrote it as an R&B song, and Barry Gibb has always said it was meant for Diana Ross. They took the title from an Ernest Hemingway novel published in 1970.

Which Christmas song, based on a 1939 Montgomery Ward booklet, gave Gene Autry a number one in 1949?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was first suggested to Autry as a mere B-side. It reached number one in Christmas week and then fell off the chart completely.

The Statler Brothers, long Johnny Cash's backing singers, were named after a brand of which product?

Facial tissues in a box in their hotel room supplied the name. Only two of the four Statlers were actually brothers, and neither was called Statler.

Whose winning name did Charlie Rich set alight with a lighter on stage at the 1975 CMA Awards?

John Denver was the new Entertainer of the Year, and a visibly drunk Rich set fire to the slip bearing his name. Rich later felt bad that people took it as a statement against the winner.

What name did Willie Nelson give the Martin guitar he bought unseen in 1969 and wore a hole through?

Trigger is named after the horse ridden by film star Roy Rogers. Nelson paid $750 for it after a drunk man stepped on his previous guitar.

Which author of the children's classic The Giving Tree wrote the Johnny Cash hit 'A Boy Named Sue'?

Shel Silverstein may have drawn the story from his friend Jean Shepherd, a humorist who was taunted as a child for his feminine-sounding name.

Which singer's posthumous number one was 'Me and Bobby McGee', a song written by Kris Kristofferson?

Janis Joplin recorded it nine days before her death in October 1970. It became her only number one single.

Which 1973 Dolly Parton hit was inspired by a red-haired bank clerk who flirted with her husband?

Jolene took her name and looks from someone else entirely: a young fan who came on stage to ask Parton for an autograph.

Which Kenny Rogers hit, written by 23-year-old Don Schlitz, was spun into a 1980 TV western?

The Gambler was hawked around Nashville for two years before Rogers took it to number one. Bobby Bare had cut it first, and that version was never even released as a single.

Which actor did his own singing as Johnny Cash in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line?

Joaquin Phoenix met Cash months before he heard about the film. Both Johnny and June approved the casting of the two leads before their deaths in 2003.

At which state prison did Johnny Cash record his first live album, a country chart-topper, in 1968?

Folsom gave Cash that success despite little promotion from his label, and the album reached the top 15 of the national chart. He went on to record more live albums behind bars.

Which TV series had Waylon Jennings as its unseen narrator, the Balladeer, and singer of its theme?

The Dukes of Hazzard kept Jennings off screen until fans' requests won him a guest spot in the seventh season. He wrote the theme, 'Good Ol' Boys', himself.

Which 1977 Burt Reynolds comedy co-starred singer Jerry Reed, who wrote its theme 'East Bound and Down'?

Smokey and the Bandit was the second-highest-grossing film of 1977 in the United States, behind only Star Wars. Reed wrote the theme virtually overnight.

Which 1960s sitcom's theme song gave Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs a number one country single?

The Beverly Hillbillies theme was the first bluegrass record to top the country chart, where it spent three weeks at number one. On the show itself the singer was Jerry Scoggins, not Flatt.

Which instrument does Johnny play to beat the Devil in the Charlie Daniels Band's 1979 Georgia-set hit?

Fiddle solos drive the band's biggest hit, which Daniels wrote on the spot in the studio. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which C. W. McCall trucking song rode the CB radio craze to number one on the pop chart?

Convoy was sung by a made-up trucker: ad man Bill Fries created C. W. McCall for a series of bread commercials. The song also spent six weeks atop the country chart.

Which Patsy Cline standard was named the most-played jukebox song of all time in 1996?

Crazy took Willie Nelson less than an hour to write, and he originally titled it 'Stupid'. He struggled to place it because it used more than the usual three chords.

Which Glen Campbell hit did its composer write after passing a lone worker in the Oklahoma panhandle?

Wichita Lineman began with Campbell's urgent phone request for another song about a place. The writer pictured the man up his telephone pole talking to a girlfriend.

Which vocal trick was the trademark of 'Singing Brakeman' Jimmie Rodgers on his 1920s blues records?

Yodeling earned him the billing America's Blue Yodeler. His label rushed out the first of his 'Blue Yodel' records after an earlier single started to sell well.

Which supergroup united Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson in 1985?

The Highwaymen took their name from a ballad that gave the four a number one single. A 1960s folk group of the same name later sued them over it.

In which mountain resort town did Dolly Parton open her Dollywood theme park in 1986?

Pigeon Forge already had a park called Silver Dollar City on the site. Parton, who grew up in the area, became a partner and it reopened under her name.

Which younger sister of Loretta Lynn took 'Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue' to number one in 1977?

Crystal Gayle got her stage name when Lynn drove past a sign for the Krystal fast-food chain. At 16 she filled in on the Grand Ole Opry when her sister fell ill.

Which Australian-raised pop star's 1974 CMA Female Vocalist win sparked a protest in Nashville?

Olivia Newton-John beat established Nashville nominees to the award. The protest that followed led to the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers.

Which 'King of the Road' singer won a Tony Award for writing the score of the Broadway musical Big River?

Roger Miller wrote both music and lyrics for the 1985 show, then joined the cast as Pap Finn the next year. He also won 11 Grammy Awards.

Which 1967 Bobbie Gentry hit left listeners guessing what was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Ode to Billie Joe reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 five weeks after its release and won three Grammys. Gentry's story was made into a film in 1976.

Which Jeannie C. Riley hit, written by Tom T. Hall, inspired a film and TV series starring Barbara Eden?

Harper Valley PTA made Riley the first woman to top both the country chart and the Hot 100 with one single. No one repeated the feat for 13 years.

Which singer was only 13 when her recording of 'Delta Dawn' became a top ten country hit in 1972?

Tanya Tucker got the song because her producer heard Bette Midler sing it on The Tonight Show, then found Midler was signed to another label.

Which 1975 Loretta Lynn single did a number of country radio stations refuse to play because of its subject?

The Pill, a wife's song about the freedom of birth control, was recorded in 1972 but held back by her label for three years. The radio ban stalled it at number five.

Which Grand Ole Opry comedian wore a hat with its $1.98 price tag left hanging from it?

Minnie Pearl was the stage character of Sarah Cannon, who played her at the Opry for more than 50 years. Her hometown of Grinders Switch was a real railroad switch.

In which sport did singer Marty Robbins start 35 top-level races, with six top-ten finishes?

Stock car racing was his second career: he drove Dodges in NASCAR's top series. He tried to run the big tracks at Daytona and Talladega every year.

Which instrument did Earl Scruggs reinvent with a three-finger picking style that defined bluegrass?

Banjo playing had been done very differently before him, and the technique came to be called Scruggs style. He wore picks on his thumb and two fingers to pluck individual strings.

Bandleader Bob Wills was widely known as the king of which country style?

Western swing put Wills in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A rival bandleader, Spade Cooley, promoted himself under the same royal title.

Which radio show gave Hank Williams a stage in 1948 and later showcased the young Elvis Presley?

Louisiana Hayride took Williams on after the Grand Ole Opry first rejected him. It took him back briefly when the Opry fired him in 1952.

Which 1952 western has country singer Tex Ritter performing its Oscar-winning theme song over the credits?

High Noon backed Ritter's voice with only three instruments, one of them the Hammond Novachord, an early electronic synthesizer. He also performed the song at the Oscars.

Which Johnny Horton hit, written by an Arkansas school principal to teach history, topped the pop chart in 1959?

The Battle of New Orleans was already 23 years old when Horton cut it in Nashville: its composer had written it in 1936. His version opens with the first 12 notes of 'Dixie'.

Which singer of 'He'll Have to Go' kept scoring hits for years after his death in a 1964 plane crash?

Jim Reeves was nicknamed Gentleman Jim for his manner on stage and off. 'He'll Have to Go' was a success on both the pop and country charts and earned him a platinum record.

Which country crooner did Colonel Tom Parker manage for years before taking on Elvis Presley?

Eddy Arnold dominated the charts under Parker. In one year he had nine top ten songs, and five of them were number ones that held the top spot for 40 of the 52 weeks.

Into which language does Freddy Fender switch for the second half of 'Before the Next Teardrop Falls'?

Spanish gave the hit its bilingual twist: Fender sang the first half in English, then repeated it. He finished the recording in a few minutes and thought that would be the last of it.

Which singer scored his only country number one with David Allan Coe's 'Take This Job and Shove It'?

Johnny Paycheck spent two weeks at the top in 1977 with the song, the complaint of a man who has worked long and hard with no apparent reward.

Which bar behind the Ryman Auditorium counted Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline among its early customers?

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge got its name by accident, after a painter surprised the owner by turning the outside purple. Nelson landed his first songwriting job after singing there.

Which Kyiv-born Hollywood tailor made the rhinestone-covered suits worn by generations of country stars?

Nudie Cohn also made the $10,000 gold lamé suit that Elvis Presley wore on an album cover. He was nearly as famous for his outrageous customised cars.

Which instrument made DeFord Bailey, the first Black star of the Grand Ole Opry, famous in the 1920s?

Harmonica playing was something Bailey learned while recovering from polio as a young child. He was also the first performer to record his music in Nashville.

Which 1950s star's guitar-shaped Nashville pool drew thousands of tourists until his neighbours sued?

Webb Pierce charged visitors to see the $30,000 pool, and fellow singer Ray Stevens led the lawsuit that ended the tours. He had more number one hits than any other country act of the 1950s.

Which singer of 'Here Comes My Baby' became the first female country artist to win a Grammy?

Dottie West co-wrote the 1964 hit with her husband, and the win also earned her membership of the Grand Ole Opry. A later song of hers became a Coca-Cola jingle.

Which group teamed with Roy Acuff and Doc Watson for the 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band set out to tie together two generations of musicians. The album was seen as a breakthrough in bridging Nashville's old guard and the younger country rock movement.

Which bluegrass anthem and official state song did Felice and Boudleaux Bryant write at a mountain inn?

Rocky Top came as a break from the slow-tempo songs the Bryants were writing for another project. The Osborne Brothers recorded it first, in 1967.

Which stuttering singer-songwriter wrote the Kenny Rogers hit 'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town'?

Mel Tillis developed the stutter after a bout of malaria in childhood, though it never affected his singing voice. The song became a worldwide hit in 1969.

Which singer's 1970 recording of Joe South's 'Rose Garden' became a number one hit in multiple countries?

Lynn Anderson recorded it after hearing South's own version. It won her the Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.

Which rock and country-rock star joined Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the 1987 album Trio?

Linda Ronstadt and her two friends first tried to make the record in the mid-1970s. Scheduling conflicts and their three different record labels blocked its release.