Dave Dudley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since March 2007. |
| Dave Dudley | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | David Darwin Pedruska | |
| Born | May 3, 1928 | |
| Origin | Spencer, Wisconsin | |
| Died | December 22, 2003 | |
| Genre(s) | Country Music | |
| Occupation(s) | singer | |
| Years active | 1961-2003 | |
| Label(s) | Golden Wing Records, Mercury Records | |
| Associated acts |
Dick Curless, Del Reeves, Tom T. Hall | |
Dave Dudley (May 3, 1928 - December 22, 2003) was a Country Music singer. Born David Darwin Pedriska, he is best known for his truck-driving Country song anthems of the 1960s and '70s.
Contents |
[edit] Early life and rise to fame
Dave Dudley is probably best-known for his trucker songs. With such songs as "Six Days on the Road" and "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", he made these songs truckers from all over the country could sing along to. He wasn't just involved in truck-driving songs, but also other works. His duet with Tom T. Hall called "Day Drinking" proved this. He is one of the best-known singers of the truck-driving era in Country music and was one of the icons in this category.
Dave was born in 1928 in Spencer, Wisconsin. In his earlier years, he actually started out as a semi-professional baseball player. However, he suffered an arm injury and therefore was not able to play baseball. Instead, he decided to pursue a career in music, more specifically Country music, and he was one of the earliest artists to record for National Recording Corporation on the NRC label.
Dudley was injured, this time in a car accident in 1960, shortly setting back his career in music. He appeared first on the Country charts in 1961 with the song "Maybe I Do", released by Vee Records. He later moved to Golden Wing Records. Two years later, in 1963, the label released the single "Six Days on the Road".
[edit] Height of his career
Nobody expected what the song would do for Dudley's career. The song immediately became a hit for Dudley. The song was written by Earl Green and Peanut Montgomery. That same year, Dudley moved on to Mercury records. By the end of 1963 he released his first single from the label called "Last Day in the Mines". For the rest of the 1960s, Dave Dudley scored more big hits. Some of these hits were "Truck Drivin' Son-Of-a-Gun", "Trucker's Prayer" and "Anything Leaving Town Today". However, his signature song "Six Days on the Road" has remained a trucker's classic as well as a Country classic, never to be forgotten in this genre. At the end of the 60s, Dave was also recording more conservative songs as well, however, not really changing his image in anyway.
Dave's career however, was not over in the 1970s. In fact, he continued to have success in this decade as well. He continued to record for Mercury Records in the 70s. He had some Country Top Tens in the 70s like the songs "Comin' Down" and "Fly Away Again". These songs both made the charts in the early 70s. His iconic status in the truck-driving world continued to grow. By the late 70s, his success on the charts was beginning to fade.
By the 1980s, his chart success was not even evident anymore. However, he did have a good run, in terms of chart success. Overall, in his career during the 60s and 70s, Dave scored thirty-three Top 40 Country hits, which was quite amazing for the time in Country music.
[edit] Decline and death
In the 1980s, Dave Dudley didn't stop recording. He continued to record but not as much as he used to. However, he remained popular in concert. During this time, he was elected to the Nashville Teamsters Truck Drivers Union. This showed that the public, especially truck drivers, still loved him and his truck-driving songs. He received a solid gold membership card from the union. He also found out during this time, he had a big fan base in Europe and decided to try to appeal more to this market.
In total, Dudley recorded more than 70 albums. However, he did not manage to reclaim his past success, and neither his single "Where's that Truck?", recorded with DJ Charlie Douglas, nor the track "Dave Dudley, American Trucker", recorded in 2002 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, helped revive his career. It is also quite amazing that not much of his hits has made it onto CDs and albums. This makes his vinyl junkies more precious.
Dudley died on December 22, 2003 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Wisconsin.
[edit] Sources
- Country Music:The Rough Guide; Wolff, Kurt; Penguin Publishing
- LP Discograhy.com
