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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.11.16 15:08l 57 Lines 2778 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 12835_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 10
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 161110/1355Z 12835@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1958
Future country legend Conway Twitty earns a #1 hit as a
rock-and-roll idol
Between 1965 and his death in 1993, the legendary Conway Twitty
placed an astonishing 40 #1 hits on the country-music charts.
Indeed, no performer in the history of country music, including
Garth Brooks, ever put together a stretch as dominant as Twitty
did during the peak years of his career between 1974 and 1982,
when 24 out of 33 consecutively released singles became country
#1s. But those who know Conway Twitty only through such country
hits as "Hello Darlin'" (1970) and "Tight Fittin' Jeans" (1981)
may be surprised to learn that a man known as the "High Priest of
Country Music" began his career as a bona fide rock-and-roller.
On this day in 1958_fully 10 years before his first country
chart-topper_Conway Twitty scored his very first #1 hit on the
pop charts, with the rock-and-roll ballad "It's Only Make
Believe."
Rock and roll and country (then commonly referred to as
"Hillbilly music") were not always easy to distinguish from each
other in the late 1950s, but that doesn't explain Conway Twitty's
achievement. While many performers scored simultaneous hits on
the country and pop charts with their releases during the early
years of rock and roll, Conway Twitty never landed a hit of any
kind on the country charts until 1966. Country music was in his
bones thanks to an upbringing in Mississippi and Arkansas, but it
was Elvis Presley that he set out to emulate at the beginning of
his professional career
Fresh from a stint in the U.S. Army, the 23-year-old Harold Lloyd
Jenkins heard Elvis's "Mystery Train" (1955) and immediately
decided to pass on a minor-league contract with baseball's
Philadelphia Phillies in favor of pursuing a recording deal with
Elvis's Memphis, Tennessee, record label, Sun Records. His first
recordings with Sun's legendary Sam Phillips were never released,
but two more years of performing experience and a change of name
led to a five-year contract with MGM for Conway Twitty in 1958.
(The name was chosen from two towns on a map: Conway, Arkansas,
and Twitty, Texas.) His second release, "It's Only Make Believe,"
which featured Elvis-backups the Jordanaires on backing vocals,
shot all the way to #1 on the Billboard pop chart
Listen to a few bars of "It's Only Make Believe" and you might
think you're hearing Elvis himself. But perhaps the greatest
proof of Conway Twitty's early status as a rock-and-roll idol can
be found in the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, whose lead
character's name_Conrad Birdie_was directly inspired by the man
who scored the first of his many #1 hits on this day in 1958
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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