The Steel Guitar Forum

During break last night our sound man put a Conway Twitty CD on. We were tryin' to think what his first Country release was when he converted over from R&R. All I could think of was "Next In Line" and "Image Of Me", but I beleive these are both written by Wayne Kemp, and I'm thinkin' that Conway wrote his first Country song himself. Doyle

I'm not sure how accurate this is, hope it helps.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>
By the end of 1965, Twitty had begun a collaboration with record producer Owen Bradley, one of the cornerstones of the Nashville sound, and had signed to Decca Records. In the spring of the following year, he released his first country single, "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart," which peaked at number 18. For the next two years, he had a steady stream of four minor hits, finally breaking into the Top Ten with "The Image of Me" in the spring of 1968, followed a few months later by his first number one hit, "Next in Line." For the next four years, he had a string of 12 Top Five singles for Decca, eight of which — including "I Love You More Today," "To See My Angel Cry," "Hello Darlin'," "Fifteen Years Ago," and "How Much More She Can Stand" — were number one hits.</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bob
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bob Knight on 18 January 2004 at 10:57 AM.]</p></FONT>

The first "Country" release that I remember was "If You Were Mine To Lose" Jimmy I'D RATHER BE STEELIN'

Conway decided to go Country after Ray Price had a #1 hit with Conway's "Walk Me To The Door". He was dropped from MGM in 1961 because his singles didn't enter the top 40 anymore and was with ABC Paramount until 1965 when he signed with Decca and producer Owen Bradley and started his long string of country hits with "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart". I Think his first #1 was "Next In Line".

And let's not forget John Hughey who contributed so much great playing to all those hits!

Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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What about the stuff Conway was doing before he went rock? I've got a compilation with some early Conway that is some of the honkiest honky tonk I ever heard. One of the titles is called Dim Cafe. I wish I could get my hands on a bunch of stuff from that era. Any of you guys know more about this? BW

Where is Gene Jones? He played with Conway in his early days and probably can tell us all about it!

Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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Walter, thanks for the opportunity to tell the true story.

I have always "smiled" when I read those accounts of "Rocker" Conway Twitty deciding to go "country". Before he was a rocker he was about as country as anyone could get.

I know the story of his beginnings because I was there with him. If you don't believe he was country, check out this URL:
http://www.genejones.com/conway.htm

www.genejones.com

Off subject, but a local radio DJ, Raymond Smith wrote Conway's hit, 15 years ago. He sang it at my dad's house and wanted to know what we thought of the song. Ray recorded it himself, but of course without the big record label, it never did very well. Shortly after he recorded it, the song was picked up by L.E. White, who was heading up Conway's publishing company at the time. And as they say, the rest is history.

Walter,

The first record John Hughey played on for Conway was "Next In Line". If I remember right the few [country] records he had before that had Lew Houston playing steel, and, that includes "The Image Of Me".
Now, I could be wrong but, that's what I was told several years ago.
I'll say one thing about John Hughey, It sure was nice of him to let Conway sing on his records.

Mike

Hey thanks everbody. Sorry it took a while to get back on. Gene, you bein' there I guess you would know what his first Country recording (imediatley after R&R)was. I'm thinkin' Bob Knight is right with "Guess My Eyes Was Bigger Than My Heart" I never doubted that he was Country before the R&R era.Doyle

Thanks Gene. Great story and pics.Dennis

Gene -- your website is Fantastic! Very interesting! Thanks for providing that historic info.

Thanks, Mike!!!

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...from one of the "old guys", thanks to all of you for your kind remarks!

www.genejones.com

Hey Gene,
Thanks a bunch for all of those photos!! I was in the Army in the 50's and early 60's but in Europe. I remember the good times we had playing NCO clubs and such. Those GI bands were a great starting point for a lot of musicians. Once again, thanks for the memories.........JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Mike Sweeney
wrote:

I'll say one thing about John Hughey, It sure was nice of him to let Conway sing on his records.
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If this implies there is plenty of John's steel on those Conway recordings, can you steer us toward some of the CDs that do feature the steel up front? Thanks!

The ones I have are:
Honky Tonk Angel
You've Never Been This Far Before
I Can't See Me Without You
She Needs Somenone to Hold Her (When She Cries)
Hello Darlin'
I Wonder What She'll Think About Me Leaving
Conway's Greatest Hits (Vol 1 & 2)
- All these are LP's and I have never been able to find them on CD.

I do have a CD Called "Conway Twitty - 20 Greatest hits" that is very good. The trouble with the greatest hits albums are that a large portion of John's greatest playing was on the "filler" songs on the albums.

There are several greatest hit type CD's that I see in good record stores and online.

Good luck finding some of these.

...my fear of the "copyright cops" prevent me from presenting more of the "originals" in my possession!

www.genejones.com

Here is a link if you are looking for out of print albums and singles:
www.buckaroorecords.com

Jeff Porterfield in Portland, OR runs it, I have found several great albums there in the past, just take a look!

Walter
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf

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John& Richard: Check out The Conway Twitty Collection, MCAD4-11095. I believe it's available through C D Now or Amazon. It includes a book that tells who played on quite a few of the songs.It is excellent. Dennis