- Red Sovine
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Red Sovine Birth name Woodrow Wilson Sovine Born July 17, 1918 Origin Charleston, West Virginia Died April 4, 1980 (aged 61) Genres country music Occupations musician, songwriter Instruments guitar Years active 1935–1980 Labels Decca, Starday Website Red Sovine.com Woodrow Wilson Sovine (July 17, 1918 – April 4, 1980), better known as Red Sovine, was an American country music singer associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music. The most famous example was his 1976 number one hit "Teddy Bear".
Contents
Biography
Early years
Born in 1918 in Charleston, West Virginia, Sovine (whose last name was pronounced So VINE) was taught to play guitar by his mother. His first venture into music was with his childhood friend Johnnie Bailes, with whom he performed as "Smiley and Red, the Singing Sailors" in the country music revue Jim Pike's Carolina Tar Heels on WWVA-AM in Wheeling, West Virginia[citation needed]. Faced with limited success, Bailes left to perform as part of The Bailes Brothers. Sovine got married, and continued to sing on Charleston radio, while holding down a job as a supervisor of a hosiery factory.[citation needed] With the encouragement of Bailes, Sovine formed The Echo Valley Boys.[citation needed]
After a year of performing in West Virginia, Sovine moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the Bailes Brothers were performing on KWKH-AM. Sovine's own early morning show wasn't very popular, but he gained greater exposure performing on the famed KWKH radio program, Louisiana Hayride. One of his co-stars was Hank Williams, who steered Sovine toward a better time slot at WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama, and toward a contract with MGM Records in 1949. That same year, Sovine replaced Williams on Louisiana Hayride when Williams jumped to the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next four years he recorded 28 singles, mostly following in Williams' honky tonk footsteps, that didn't make much of a dent on the charts but did establish him as a solid performer.
Fame
Another Louisiana Hayride co-star who helped Sovine was country music legend Webb Pierce. Pierce convinced Sovine to lead his Wondering Boys band and helped him toward a contract with Decca in 1954. The following year Sovine cut a duet with Goldie Hill, "Are You Mine?" which peaked in the Top 15, and in 1956 he had his first number one hit when he duetted with Pierce on a cover of George Jones' "Why Baby Why". Sovine had two other Top Five singles that year and joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. After recording close to 50 sides with Decca by 1959, Sovine signed to Starday Records and began touring the club circuit as a solo act.
1960s
In 1963, Sovine passed on the helping hand given him by older performers when he heard the singing of minor league baseball player Charley Pride and suggested that he move to Nashville, Tennessee. Sovine opened doors for Pride at Pierce's Cedarwood Publishing, but his own career had stalled: "Dream House For Sale", which reached number 22 in 1964, came nearly eight years after his last hit.
Trucker songs and sentimental tunes
In 1965 Sovine found his niche when he recorded "Giddyup Go", which, like most of his other trucker hits, he co-wrote with Tommy Hill. It is spoken, rather than sung, as the words of an older long-distance truck driver who rediscovers his long-lost son driving another truck on the same highway. Minnie Pearl released an answer song titled "Giddy-Up Go Answer". Sovine's version of the song spent six weeks atop the country charts and crossed over to the pop charts. Other truck-driving hits followed, including:
- "Phantom 309", a tale of a hitchhiker who hops a ride from a trucker who turns out to be the ghost of a man who died years ago giving his life to save a school bus full of children from a horrible collision with his rig. This story was later adapted by singer-songwriter Tom Waits, who performed "Big Joe And Phantom 309" during his Nighthawks At The Diner recordings. Waits' version of this song was covered by Archers of Loaf on the 1995 tribute album, Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits. Musician Steve Flett named a recording project after the song. The song was originally written and recorded by Tommy Faile.
- "Teddy Bear", the tale of a disabled boy who lost his truck driver father in a highway accident and keeps his CB radio base as his only companion.
- "Little Joe", a tale of a trucker and his devoted canine friend which became his last big hit.
Sovine was also remembered for his Christmas tear-jerkers, which included "Here It Is Christmas" (a divorcee's holiday lament), "Faith In Santa" (a dialog between a poor, runaway boy and a sidewalk Santa), and "What Does Christmas Look Like?" (a little blind girl asks her father to describe the Christmas she cannot see). He scored another sentimental hit with "Little Rosa" in which an Italian-American railroad employee tells a stranger, in broken English, about getting a bouquet to place on the grave of his small daughter who was killed by a train while he was away.
Death
On April 4, 1980, Sovine suffered a heart attack while driving his Ford van in Nashville, which caused him to crash. The injuries and his heart attack were fatal. He was buried next to his wife Norma, who died in 1976.
For many years after his death, his greatest hits collection (The Best Of Red Sovine) was advertised on television, exposing his music to a new generation of fans.
Covers
Sovine performed covers of many truck driving songs made popular by fellow country stars, such as Del Reeves and Dave Dudley, as well as "Why Baby Why", a duet with Webb Pierce originally recorded by George Jones. Other covers include "A Dear John Letter" (Jean Shepard and Ferlin Husky), "Old Rivers" (Walter Brennan), "Bringing Mary Home" (The Country Gentlemen), and "Roses for Mama" (C.W. McCall), among many more.
Many of Sovine's biggest truck driving hits were covered by artists such as, Del Reeves, Dave Dudley, Ferlin Husky, Boxcar Willie, Tex Williams and Australian country singer Nev Nicholls. Mike Judge covered "Teddy Bear" as Hank Hill for the King of the Hill soundtrack. Some of Sovine's songs were covered by Dutch artists and became big hits in the Netherlands (Teddy Bear, Giddy Up Go and Deck of Cards by Gerard de Vries, Phantom 309 (Stille Willie) by the B B Band, Little Joe (Kleine Waker) by Henk Wijngaard). Tom Waits released Big Joe and Phantom 309 on his 1975 "Nighthawks at the Diner".
Discography
Studio albums
Year Album Chart Positions Label US Country CAN 1956 Red Sovine — — MGM 1961 The One and Only — — Starday 1962 The Golden Country Ballads of the '60s — — 1963 Red Sovine — — Decca 1965 The Heart Rending Little Rosa — — Starday 1966 Country Music Time — — Decca Giddy Up Go 4 — Starday The Sensational Red — — The Nashville Sound — — 1967 I Didn't Jump the Fence — — Dear John Letter — — 1968 The Country Way — — Vocalion Phantom 309 18 — Starday Tell Maude I Slipped — — Sunday with Sovine — — Anytime — — 1969 Classic Narrations — — Closing Time Till Dawn — — Who Am I — — Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town — — 1970 I Know You're Married — — 1973 Greatest Grand Ole Opry — — Chart 1974 It'll Come Back 48 — 1976 Teddy Bear 1 67 Starday 1977 Woodrow Wilson Sovine 50 — 1978 Christmas with Red Sovine — — 16 New Gospel Songs — — Gusto Compilation albums
Year Album US Country Label 1975 The Best — Starday Little Rosa — Hit 1977 16 All-Time Favorites — Starday 16 Greatest Hits 47 1980 Teddy Bear — Gusto Phantom 309 — Giddy Up Go — Gone But Not Forgotten — Castle 1986 Sings Hank Williams — Deluxe 1989 Crying in the Chapel — Hollywood Famous Duets — 1991 Best of the Best — Federal 2001 Phantom 309 — Prism Leisure 2002 Pledge of Allegiance — King 20 All-Time Greatest Hits — Singles
Year Single Chart Positions Label US Country US 1955 "Why Baby Why" (w/ Webb Pierce) 1 — Decca 1956 "If Jesus Come to Your House" 15 — "Hold Everything (Till I Get Home)" 5 — 1965 "Giddyup Go" 1 82 Starday 1966 "Long Night" 47 — 1967 "I Didn't Jump the Fence" 17 — "Phantom 309" 9 — 1974 "It'll Come Back" 16 — Chart 1975 "Daddy's Girl" 91 — "Phantom 309" 47 — Starday 1976 "Teddy Bear"A 1 40 "Little Joe" 45 102 "Last Goodbye" 96 — 1977 "Woman Behind the Man Behind the Wheel" 92 — 1978 "Lay Down Sally" 70 — 1980 "It'll Come Back" 89 — - A"Teddy Bear" also peaked at #1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart and #49 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada. His song "Teddy Bear" was also made slightly famous by Mike Judge, better known by the alias Hank Hill, as "Hank" released a CD of covers with himself singing other songs. One of the songs on this CD was "Teddy Bear."
References
- Red Sovine Feature in the WFMU Diesel Sniffing Series
- Official Site
- Allmusic
- Tales from the Truck Stop - A humorous, illustrated fiction blog that spoofs the sentimental and supernatural world Red Sovine created in his songs.
- Trott, Walt (1998). "Red Sovine". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 499. lpdiscography.com
Categories:- 1918 births
- 1980 deaths
- People from Charleston, West Virginia
- American male singers
- American country singers
- Starday Records artists
- RCA Victor artists
- Decca Records artists
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
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