Red Sovine

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Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 17, 1917 — April 4, 1980) was a country music singer. He was associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives, but set to music. The most famous example of this is his 1978 number one hit "Teddy Bear".

Born in 1917 in Charleston, West Virginia, he was taught how 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 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. Sovine's own early morning show wasn't very popular, but he gained greater exposure performing on the famed KWKH radio program, "The Louisiana Hayride". One of his co-stars was Hank Williams, who steered Sovine toward a better time slot at WFSA in Montgomery, Alabama, and toward a contract with MGM Records in 1949. In that same year, Red 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.

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[edit] Fame

Another "Louisiana Hayride" co-star that helped Sovine along was country music legend Webb Pierce. Pierce convinced Sovine to lead his Wondering Boys band and helped him along 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.

[edit] 1960s

In 1963, Sovine passed on the helping hand given him by older performers when he heard the singing of African-American 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.

[edit] Trucker songs and other sentimental tunes

In 1965, however, Sovine at last found his niche when he recorded "Giddy-Up Go", which, like most of his other trucker hits, was co-written by Tommy Hill and Sovine himself. 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. The song spent six weeks atop the country charts and even 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 kids from a horrible collision with his rig. This particular story was later adapted by singer/songwriter Tom Waits who performed "Big Joe and Phantom 309" during his Nighthawks At The Diner recordings. Musician Steve Flett named a recording project after the song.
  • "Teddy Bear", the tale of a crippled little 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 blinded 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 daddy to describe the Christmas that she cannot see). He scored another sentimental hit with "Little Rosa" in which a Mexican-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.

[edit] Death

On 4 April, 1980, Red Sovine suffered a heart attack while driving his Dodge van in the city of Nashville, Tennessee which caused him to crash. The injuries sustained from the wreck and Sovine's heart attack were fatal. For many years after his death, his Greatest Hits collection (Titled "The Best Of Red Sovine") was advertised on television; exposing his music to a new generation of fans who would not have otherwise heard of him. In 2007, many of his songs were played in Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia on the "Elliot in the Morning" Show, exposing Sovine's music once again to another generation that may have never heard of him without Elliot's help.

[edit] Discography

YEAR ALBUM US COUNTRY LABEL
1956 Red Sovine MGM
1961 The One And Only Starday
1962 The Golden Country Ballads of The `60 Starday
1963 Red Sovine Decca
1965 The Heart Rending Little Rosa Starday
1966 Country Music Time Decca
1966 Giddy Up Go 4 Starday
1966 The Sensational Red Starday
1966 The Nashville Sound Starday
1967 I Didn't Jump The Fence Starday
1967 Dear John Letter Starday
1968 The Country Way Vocalion
1968 Phantom 309 18 Starday
1968 Tell Maude I Slipped Starday
1968 Sunday With Sovine Starday
1968 Anytime Starday
1969 Classic Narrations Starday
1969 Closing Time Till Dawn Starday
1969 Who Am I Starday
1969 Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town Starday
1970 I Know You're Married Starday
1973 Greatest Grand Ole Opry Chart
1974 It'll Coming Back 48 Chart
1975 The Best (Compilation Album) Starday
1975 Little Rosa (Compilation Album) Hit
1976 Teddy Bear 1 Starday
1977 16 All-Time Favorites (Compilation Album) Starday
1977 Woodrow Wilson Sovine 50 Starday
1977 16 Greatest Hits (Compilation Album) 47 Starday
1978 Christmas With Red Sovine Starday
1978 16 New Gospel Songs Gusto
1980 Teddy Bear (Compilation Album) Gusto
1980 Phantom 309 (Compilation Album) Gusto
1980 Giddy Up Go (Compilation Album) Gusto
1980 Gone But Not Forgotten (Compilation Album) Castle
1986 Sings Hank Williams (Compilation Album) Deluxe
1989 Crying In The Chapel (Compilation Album) Hollywood
1989 Famous Duets (Compilation Album) Hollywood
1991 Best of The Best (Compilation Album) Federal
2001 Phantom 309 (Compilation Album) Prism Leisure
2002 Pledge Of Allegiance (Compilation Album) King

[edit] Single Discography

YEAR SINGLE US COUNTRY US LABEL
1955 Why Baby Why 1 Decca
1956 If Jesus Come To Your House 15 Decca
1956 Hold Everything (Till I Get Home) 5 Decca
1965 Giddy-Up Go 1 82 Decca
1966 Long Night 47 Decca
1967 I Didn't Jump The Fence 17 Decca
1967 Phantom 309 9 Decca
1974 It'll Come Back 16 Chart
1975 Daddy's Girl 91 Chart
1975 Phantom 309 47 Starday
1976 Teddy Bear 1 40 Starday
1976 Little Joe 45 Starday
1976 Last Goodbye 96 Starday
1977 Woman Behind The Man Behind The Wheel 92 Starday
1978 Lay Down Sally 70 Starday
1980 It'll Come Back 89 Starday

[edit] References