Shelby Singleton - How To Produce A Hit

On October 7 of this year, famed record producer Shelby Singleton passed away at the age of 77.

Folks who are younger than me won't recognize the name, but in the sixties, Shelby Singleton was a major force in the world of country music.

Right now, if I think of the Smash label and the Plantation label, I can still picture the 45's and albums that I spun on my cheap-ola turntables. And I think of names such as Roger Miller and Ray Stevens, not to mention, of course, Jeannie C. Riley ~ but we'll get to her later.

Before his producing days, however, Mr. Singleton worked as a record plugger for Mercury Records. Here is a sampling of the music he discovered:

Bruce Channel (featuring harp by Delbert McClinton on the original recording) ~ Hey Baby

As any chick-flick aficionado could tell you, this recording was also featured in the movie, "Dirty Dancing". (I like to throw in trivia, when I can.)

Paul and Paula (nee "Jill and Ray" ~ doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?) ~ Hey Paula

"Hey Paula" was a sappy song, but it was 1963 and sap was in style. Looking back, one might think, hey, wasn't Rock & Roll getting going in 1963? Sadly, not really. A quick check of the charts shows that the top songs of 1963 included "I Will Follow Him" by "Little" Peggy March, "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs, "Blue Velvet" (!) by Bobby Vinton; not to mention "Dominique" by the Singing Nun. A sapfest galore.

Running Bear ~ Johnny Preston

As you will note by the record being placed on the spindle, this song was written by J.P. Richardson (the "Big Bopper"). J.P. (or B.B.) was kind of politically incorrect, wasn't he? Well, it was the late fifties.

Later, as Shelby transitioned into a producer role with Mercury, he recorded LeRoy Van Dyke's seminal hit, "Walk On By":

LeRoy was known as the Singing Auctioneer, but that's a different song, another day. "Walk On By" was a huge hit in 1961. I was six years old. I didn't know why somebody would walk on by if they saw someone they knew on the corner, but I guess I figured it was one of those spy versus spy things, like in my brother's Mad Magazine.

On the same day in 1961, Shelby also produced this recording by Ray Stevens ~ Ahab The Arab:

Let me just say that I am a big fan of Ray Stevens' "serious music". I just can't get on board with this one, though. It's not so much that it's politically incorrect; it's just that it's stupid.

Shelby also produced this song, by Roger Miller ~ Dang Me:

Roger Miller - Dang Me (early 1970's)

Men In Black | MySpace Video
Sorry for the crappy Hee Haw video, but it's the only one I could find. Although if it wasn't for Hee Haw in the sixties, we country fans would have never found country music anywhere on our TV dial.

Roger Miller was a great songwriter, and this hit is from the album, "The Return of Roger Miller", which was a rather audacious title, considering that Roger really didn't have anywhere to return from at that time. But make no mistake; novelty tunes aside, Roger wrote great songs, such as, "Invitation to the Blues" and "Husbands and Wives", among many others.

Shelby Singleton will, of course, always be associated with this huge hit that he produced for Jeannie C. Riley, written by Tom T. Hall ~ Harper Valley P.T.A.

If you were alive in the year 1968, you could not escape this recording. It was played ad nauseam on the radio. I could repeat every riff, dobro and otherwise, of this song in my sleep. I bet even people who didn't listen to country music have this song seared into their brains. I guess that's the mark of a true hit!

And speaking of marks, Shelby Singleton definitely left his, in the annals of country music. And to top it all off, he went and bought Sun Records!

It's nice to look back and remember, and to acknowledge those who worked with little recognition, to create what became a snapshot of the history of popular music.

Another New "Video"

Here's a video for Red River's song, "Heartview". Heartview was the treatment center that my dad went to in 1976. This was his third and final try at getting sober, and this time it worked.

I really miss my dad, and I hope I did justice to his struggle by writing this song.

It's a really personal song for me, so if you don't like it, well, that's okay. I'm still glad I wrote it. And I think my dad is nodding his head, somewhere up in heaven. Somebody had to tell his story, and of course, that somebody would be me.

The Time of My Life

It just doesn't get much better than this.



Rest in peace, Patrick Swayze.

The Co-Worker's Bill of Rights

• I have the right to expect you to leave a message, if you call. I assume you wanted something, or you wouldn't have called. Sometimes I'm in the middle of something. I drop whatever I'm doing for only two people - three, if you count God, but I'm not expecting Him to call.

• If you DO leave me a message, I expect you to say more than just, "call me". Give me a clue what you want. I don't like surprises.

• I have the right to not have to entertain you, because you are BORED. I would be more than happy to share some of my work with you. Or better yet, you could do some of your own!

• I have the right to expect your emails to make sense. I don't have the time or money to hire an interpreter. If I have to guess what you're saying, I may just delete you.

• If I walk into the copy room, and you are talking and laughing with yourself, I have the right to walk out. I'm too old and irritable to be humoring weirdos.

• I have the right to expect you to get to the point. Telling me the same thing five times doesn't make your point any clearer. I'm not a dunce. If I have questions, I will ask. While you were endlessly repeating yourself, I had to stop doing the other three things that I was juggling at the time.

• If you insist on carrying on personal phone calls all day long, I have the right to expect you to PIPE DOWN. Your conversations are not interesting to me.

• If you are sick, I have the right to expect you to stay home. Please do not come to work, cough on me, and then brag about how much personal time you have left, because you never call in sick.

• I have the right to not have to deal with your singing off-key to the song playing through your headphones.

• I have the right to not have my lunch stolen out of the refrigerator. Are you a kleptomaniac or just a cheapskate?

• I have the right to not have to listen to your utterances - swearing at your computer, shushing people, whistling, slamming things, sighing loudly. Try to remain under control. While it may seem like home, it's actually the office.

• I have the right to expect you to learn how to spell, use punctuation, and capitalization. An email or work document is not a text message. If you can't accomplish this, U R A MORON.

Wow - only twelve? I could come up with so many more! I do admit, however, that I feel better now.

Feel free to add your own list of rights.

Baby Boomers Are So Self-Absorbed

Don't baby boomers get on your nerves? They're so obsessed with stuff that nobody cares about. I mean, like Beatles remasters. They're all flocked around the Beatles display at Target, trying to decide whether to buy Help or Rubber Soul or Revolver. Stuff that was recorded in the dark ages. There they are, all hunched over, leaning on their canes. It's pathetic, really.

And don't even get them started on a discussion of music. Because it will bore you to tears. All they do is hark back to the time when the Beatles first appeared on some TV show called, "Ed Sullivan". Like, you know, they were the first super group ever. Like they changed the face of music or something.

It's kind of like sitting at your great-grandpa's knee, and hearing him talking about the old Model T's. And how they just don't make cars like that anymore. You pat him on the shoulder and say, "I hear ya, Grandpa", and later, you take off in your Jeep Cherokee and chuckle about how Great Grandpa is mired in the past.

Cuz you know, from what I hear, the Beatles actually recorded their stuff on vinyl! What a weird, totally unworkable concept. The strangest part, to me, is that people would actually go to the "record store" and buy something called "45's". All you'd get is one good song on Side A, and some crap "filler" on Side B. What the hell? Who came up with THIS brilliant idea? I mean, you could get, for instance, "Revolution" on Side A, and then you'd be stuck with some loser song like, "Penny Lane" on Side B. Or "Day Tripper" on Side A, and "We Can Work It Out" on Side B. Worthless.

And how good could the Beatles have been, really? I mean, if any of their songs lasted longer than three minutes, that was a stretch. You can't say much of anything in under three minutes.

And they did something called "albums". Me, I like my MP3 downloads. I get exactly what I want, when I want it. What's the big deal about albums? Is it like a conceptual thing? Is there some kind of vibe, or ebb and flow that I'm missing? Is there some coherence that I'm supposed to recognize?

Everywhere you go, you're bombarded with John Lennon this, Paul McCartney that. Get real. Like they were visionaries or something. Ooh, and George Harrison was such a great guitar player. He played the sitar! For my money, give me a good rap artist, talking over some riff that somebody else created, and I'm happy as a clam.

I just don't get it. I'm a big music fan. I consider myself to be well-informed about the music biz. I like what's hip; what's now. I don't need to be bothered with discussions about something that happened sometime before electric lights were invented.

As if that has had any influence on anything that anybody listens to now........

How North Dakota Acquired a Budget Surplus

Ghost Town Video

I don't own a video camera. Therefore, all our "music videos" are more like glorified vacation slides set to music. Yet artfully done!

Here's one I did recently for our song, Ghost Town: