1946
Born on this day in Versailles, Kentucky, was John Conlee, country music singer who between 1978 and 2004 scored a total of thirty-two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Conlee has scored seven #1 hits including, “Lady Lay Down,” “Backside of Thirty,” “Common Man,” “I’m Only in It for the Love,” and “Got My Heart Set on You.”
1952
Hank Williams was fired from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness. (After a fall suffered during a hunting trip in Tennessee early in the year, Williams started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to ease the pain).
1989
“Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That” by Dolly Parton was at #1 on the country chart. Released as the first single from the album White Limozeen, the song was Parton’s eighteenth #1.
1998
Vince Gill released his eighth studio album The Key which became his first #1 Country Album. The album features the singles “If You Ever Have Forever in Mind,” “Kindly Keep It Country,” “Don’t Come Cryin’ to Me.”
2008
Don Helms a steel guitarist best known as the steel guitar player of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys died aged 81. Helms was a featured musician on over 100 Hank Williams recordings and went on to play on many classic country hits, including Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight,” Stonewall Jackson’s “Waterloo,” the Louvin Brothers’ “Cash on the Barrelhead,” Lefty Frizzell’s “Long Black Veil” and Loretta Lynn’s “Blue Kentucky Girl.”
