ROGER MILLER
Roger Miller (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor, best known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs. His most recognized tunes included the chart-topping country/pop hits “King of the Road”, “Dang Me” and “England Swings”, all from the mid-1960’s Nashville sound era, continuing to record and tour into the 1990’s. He also wrote the music and lyrics for the 1985 Tony-award winning Broadway musical Big River, in which he acted. (More from Wikipedia)
In the late 1960’s, I attended a traveling show of several country artists put together by Jim Ed Brown, if memory serves. It included one of the earliest appearances by Crystal Gayle (Loretta Lynn’s younger sister) long before her hit song “Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue”, and Roger Miller might have been the headliner; but what I really remember was the electrifying appearance by Jerry Lee Lewis, still one of the most exciting concerts I have ever seen – and the rest of the audience seemed to concur.
(May 2011)
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The Soul Agents released their second single on October 15, 1964, also on Pye Records; the band picked two other traditional songs for this 45, “The Seventh Son” b/w “Let’s Make it Pretty Baby”. “The Seventh Son” was a Top Ten hit song for Johnny Rivers in 1965, and “seventh son” is mentioned in numerous other songs as well, such as Roger Miller’s “Dang Me”: “I’m the seventh out of seven sons / My pappy was a pistol, I’m a son of a gun”.
(May 2014)
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Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen took “Hot Rod Lincoln” to #9 in 1972 (it was the #69 song for the entire year of 1972 in fact according to Billboard). Other covers include those by the Western swing revival band Asleep at the Wheel, Pat Travers, the punk rock band ALL, Roger Miller, Les Claypool (for the 2003 album NASCAR: Crank it Up), and Jim Varney (recorded for the soundtrack of the 1993 film The Beverly Hillbillies in which he starred as Jed Clampett).
(December 2014)
