1937
Born on this day in Atlanta, Georgia, was Jerry Reed, country music singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included “Guitar Man,”, “A Thing Called Love,” (both of which were covered by Elvis Presely), “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” “Ko-Ko Joe”, “East Bound and Down” (the theme song for the 1977 blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)”. Reed died on Aug 31st 2008.
1989
Ricky Van Shelton was at #1 on the Country charts with his own version of “From a Jack to a King.” Shelton’s version became his fifth consecutive #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts. Originally the song was a crossover hit for artist Ned Miller, first released in 1957 and was also recorded in 1962 by Jim Reeves and Elvis Presley.
1991
At Reba McEntire’s request, Johnny Cash gave a speech during the service held for the eight band members and two pilots killed in an air crash on 16th March. He opened his speech by singing the song “Jim I Wore A Tie Today” and when it came time to say the name in the song, Cash replaced it with the name of each band member – “Jim, Chris, Kirk, Joey, Paula, Terry, Tony and Mike, I wore a tie today.” He ended his part of the service with the rendition of the Hank Williams recitation “Negro Funeral.”
2020American country music legend Kenny Rogers died aged 81. Rogers topped pop and country charts during the 1970s and 1980s, and won three Grammy awards. He was known for his husky voice and ballads including “The Gambler”, “Lucille” and “Coward Of The County”. Rogers charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, and topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold over 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
