Red Sovine

Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 17, 1917 — April 4, 1980) was a country music singer. He was associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives, but set to music. The most famous example of this is his 1978 number one hit "Teddy Bear".

Born in 1917 in Charleston, West Virginia, he was taught how to play guitar by his mother. His first venture into music was with his childhood friend Johnnie Bailes, with whom he performed as "Smiley and Red, the Singing Sailors" in the country music revue Jim Pike's Carolina Tar Heels on WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. Faced with limited success, Bailes, left to perform as part of The Bailes Brothers. Sovine got married, and continued to sing on Charleston radio, while holding down a job as a supervisor of a hosiery factory. With the encouragement of Bailes, Sovine formed The Echo Valley Boys.

After a year of performing in West Virginia, Sovine moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the Bailes Brothers were performing on KWKH. Sovine's own early morning show wasn't very popular, but he gained greater exposure performing on the famed KWKH radio program, "The Louisiana Hayride". One of his co-stars was Hank Williams, who steered Sovine toward a better time slot at WFSA in Montgomery, Alabama, and toward a contract with MGM Records in 1949. In that same year, Red replaced Williams on Louisiana Hayride when Williams jumped to the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next four years he recorded 28 singles, mostly following in Williams' honky tonk footsteps, that didn't make much of a dent on the charts but did establish him as a solid performer.

Fame

Another "Louisiana Hayride" co-star that helped Sovine along was country music legend Webb Pierce. Pierce convinced Sovine to lead his Wondering Boys band and helped him along toward a contract with Decca in 1954. The following year Sovine cut a duet with Goldie Hill, "Are You Mine?", which peaked in the Top 15, and in 1956 he had his first number one hit when he duetted with Pierce on a cover of George Jones' "Why Baby Why". Sovine had two other Top Five singles that year and joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry. After recording close to 50 sides with Decca by 1959, Sovine signed to Starday Records and began touring the club circuit as a solo act.

1960s

In 1963, Sovine passed on the helping hand given him by older performers when he heard the singing of African-American minor league baseball player Charley Pride and suggested that he move to Nashville, Tennessee . Sovine opened doors for Pride at Pierce's Cedarwood Publishing, but his own career had stalled-- "Dream House for Sale", which reached number 22 in 1964, came nearly eight years after his last hit.

Trucker songs and other sentimental tunes

In 1965, however, Sovine at last found his niche when he recorded "Giddy-Up Go", which, like most of his other trucker hits, was co-written by Tommy Hill and Sovine himself. It is spoken, rather than sung, as the words of an older long-distance truck driver who rediscovers his long-lost son driving another truck on the same highway. The song spent six weeks atop the country charts and even crossed over to the pop charts. Other truck-driving hits followed, including:

• "Phantom 309", a tale of a hitchhiker who hops a ride from a trucker who turns out to be the ghost of a man who died years ago giving his life to save a school bus full of kids from a horrible collision with his rig. This particular story was later adapted by singer/songwriter Tom Waits who performed "Big Joe and Phantom 309" during his Nighthawks At The Diner recordings. Musician Steve Flett named a recording project after the song.
• "Teddy Bear", the tale of a crippled little boy who lost his truck driver father in a highway accident and keeps his CB radio base as his only companion.
• "Little Joe", a tale of a blinded trucker and his devoted canine friend which became his last big hit.

Sovine was also remembered for his Christmas tear-jerkers, which included "Here it is Christmas" (a divorcee's holiday lament), "Faith in Santa" (a dialog between a poor, runaway boy and a sidewalk Santa), and "What Does Christmas Look Like?" (a little blind girl asks daddy to describe the Christmas that she cannot see). He scored another sentimental hit with "Little Rosa" in which a Mexican-American railroad employee tells a stranger, in broken English, about getting a bouquet to place on the grave of his small daughter who was killed by a train while he was away.

Death

On 4 April, 1980, Red Sovine suffered a heart attack while driving his Dodge van in the city of Nashville, Tennessee which caused him to crash. The injuries sustained from the wreck and Sovine's heart attack were fatal. For many years after his death, his Greatest Hits collection (Titled "The Best Of Red Sovine") was advertised on television; exposing his music to a new generation of fans who would not have otherwise heard of him. In 2007, many of his songs were played in Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia on the "Elliot in the Morning Show", exposing Sovine's music once again to another generation that may have never heard of him without Elliot's help.

Discography

YEAR	ALBUM	US COUNTRY	LABEL
1956	Red Sovine		MGM
1961	The One And Only		Starday
1962	The Golden Country Ballads of The `60		Starday
1963	Red Sovine		Decca
1965	The Heart Rending Little Rosa		Starday
1966	Country Music Time		Decca
1966	Giddy Up Go	4	Starday
1966	The Sensational Red		Starday
1966	The Nashville Sound		Starday
1967	I Didn't Jump The Fence		Starday
1967	Dear John Letter		Starday
1968	The Country Way		Vocalion
1968	Phantom 309	18	Starday
1968	Tell Maude I Slipped		Starday
1968	Sunday With Sovine		Starday
1968	Anytime		Starday
1969	Classic Narrations		Starday
1969	Closing Time Till Dawn		Starday
1969	Who Am I		Starday
1969	Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town		Starday
1970	I Know You're Married		Starday
1973	Greatest Grand Ole Opry		Chart
1974	It'll Coming Back	48	Chart
1975	The Best (Compilation Album)		Starday
1975	Little Rosa (Compilation Album)		Hit
1976	Teddy Bear	1	Starday
1977	16 All-Time Favorites (Compilation Album)		Starday
1977	Woodrow Wilson Sovine	50	Starday
1977	16 Greatest Hits (Compilation Album)	47	Starday
1978	Christmas With Red Sovine		Starday
1978	16 New Gospel Songs		Gusto
1980	Teddy Bear (Compilation Album)		Gusto
1980	Phantom 309 (Compilation Album)		Gusto
1980	Giddy Up Go (Compilation Album)		Gusto
1980	Gone But Not Forgotten (Compilation Album)		Castle
1986	Sings Hank Williams (Compilation Album)		Deluxe
1989	Crying In The Chapel (Compilation Album)		Hollywood
1989	Famous Duets (Compilation Album)		Hollywood
1991	Best of The Best (Compilation Album)		Federal
2001	Phantom 309 (Compilation Album)		Prism Leisure
2002	Pledge Of Allegiance (Compilation Album)		King

Single Discography

YEAR	SINGLE	US COUNTRY	US	LABEL
1955	Why Baby Why	1		Decca
1956	If Jesus Come To Your House	15		Decca
1956	Hold Everything (Till I Get Home)	5		Decca
1965	Giddy-Up Go	1	82	Decca
1966	Long Night	47		Decca
1967	I Didn't Jump The Fence	17		Decca
1967	Phantom 309	9		Decca
1974	It'll Come Back	16		Chart
1975	Daddy's Girl	91		Chart
1975	Phantom 309	47		Starday
1976	Teddy Bear	1	40	Starday
1976	Little Joe	45		Starday
1976	Last Goodbye	96		Starday
1977	Woman Behind The Man Behind The Wheel	92		Starday
1978	Lay Down Sally	70		Starday
1980	It'll Come Back	89		Starday

References

• Red Sovine Feature in the WFMU Diesel Sniffing Series
• Official Site
• All Music Guide
• Tales from the Truck Stop - A humorous, illustrated fiction blog that spoofs the sentimental and supernatural world Red Sovine created in his songs.
• Trott, Walt (1998). "Red Sovine". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 499. lpdiscography.com