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Red Sovine
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Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 17, 1918 — 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 1976 number one hit "Teddy Bear".
Born in 1918 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.
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Encyclopedia
Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 17, 1918 — 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 1976 number one hit "Teddy Bear".
Born in 1918 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. 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. With the encouragement of Bailes, Sovine formed The Echo Valley Boys.
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 WSFA 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.
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.
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.
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 himself 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. 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. 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.
- "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 trucker and his devoted canine friend which became his last big hit.
These songs were also recorded by artists such as, Ferlin Husky, Boxcar Willie, Tex Williams, and Austrailian country singer Nev Nicholls.
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.
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 ("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 to a generation that may have never heard of him without Elliot's help.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|
| 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 Coming Back | 48 | | 1976 | Teddy Bear | 1 | 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 |
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 | "Giddy-Up Go" | 1 | 82 | | 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" | 1 | 40 | | "Little Joe" | 45 | | | "Last Goodbye" | 96 | | | 1977 | "Woman Behind the Man Behind the Wheel" | 92 | | | 1978 | "Lay Down Sally" | 70 | | | 1980 | "It'll Come Back" | 89 | |
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