Country singer sonny james biography

Only four of those singles didn't reach No. James' meteoric rise positioned him for everything from feature film roles, including an appearance in Waylon Jennings' Nashville Rebelto a co-hosting gig at the inaugural CMA Awards in alongside Bobbie Gentry. An earlier No. His 16th straight No. In the early '70s, James began aiding the solo career of a teenager from a famous family.

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Country singer sonny james biography

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To this point the musical appearances had been a part-time effort for the family, as they returned after each gig or tour to work the family farm. After a few years the father decided they were professional enough to immerse themselves into the field full-time, so the father leased out the farm and they took a daily spot on radio station KLCN, where they provided early-morning accompaniment for the area's early-risers.

After that they had spots on several other radio stations around the South. Near Christmastime that year, the two girls were married in West Memphis, Arkansas in a double ceremony [ 4 ] and left the group. The parents found other girls to take their place, but the group soon disbanded the parents returned to Hackleburg and opened a clothing store, where James worked while belatedly finishing his final year of high school.

After military service in Korea, James moved to Nashvillewhere he spent a week staying with Chet Atkins and his wife. James had roomed with Atkins years earlier in Raleigh, North Carolina when they were playing at the same radio station. James stated, "After dinner Chet and I began woodshedding on our guitars. While appearing on Louisiana Hayridehe met musician Slim Whitman.

James' performance on stage playing a fiddle and singing brought a strong crowd response, and Whitman invited him to front for his new touring band. The Loden family had only appeared in schoolhouses and such and Sonny agreed to stay on for a few shows until Whitman could find his replacement. Over the next few years, he had several songs that did reasonably well on the country music charts and he continued to develop his career with performances at live country music shows.

He also appeared on radio, including Big D Jamboreebefore moving to the all-important new medium, television, where he became a regular performer on ABC 's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri beginning in October Following his long streak of No. In late James released " Young Love ", a 45 rpm single for which he would country singer sonny james biography be remembered.

As the first teenage country crossover single, it topped both the US country and pop music charts in January to February Record sales could have been higher if Capitol Records had anticipated the exposure on popular-music charts; they had ordered only enough copies of the record to satisfy the anticipated country-music demand, and were therefore unable to supply most of the requests for records.

Thus began a seven-year search for a sound that gave him a lasting career. Two more years at Capitol Records didn't produce it and they parted ways in James signed with National Recording Corporationand then stints with Dot —RCA —his second time with Capitol —and later with Columbia —Monument and Dimension — In he returned to his roots and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and a year later signed again with Capitol Records.

From to he was a dominant force in country music. On August 15,James made his first appearance with a vocal group that had been together for five years. These four young men had started singing as freshmen at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusettsinand in September they transferred to a sister college in Nashville, Tennessee. James felt he had found the combination that propelled him into his second career — that sound he had been seeking for seven years.

So these and year-old men, along with James' multi-talented bass player Milo Liggett, became the Southern Gentlemen and joined year-old Sonny James.