Happy 60th birthday today to singer/songwriter David Lee Murphy! It was nice to see him back at the top of the country charts in 2017 with Kenny Chesney on “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” his first chart hit in 13 years and his second #1 hit (and it won the CMA award for Musical Event of the Year just three months ago). His absence from the charts was only as a recording artist. As a writer, he’s had major success through the years with co-writing credits on such hits as Kenny’s “Living in Fast Forward,” Jason Aldean’s “Big Green Tractor” and The Road Hammers’ “Get On Down the Road,” just to name a few. I met David Lee in the late 1990’s when he came to the Pelmorex Radio Network in Mississauga as a guest on the radio show “Cryin’, Lovin’ or Leavin’.” By then, he’d already had those early huge hits “Dust on the Bottle” and “Party Crowd.” In the staff lunchroom, we had a finicky coffee maker. If you pushed the wrong button, the coffee pot would overflow, making a mess. Everyone, myself included, found that out the hard way. David, being a nice guy, offered to make a pot of coffee during a break fromhis live interview. And, you guessed it, he pushed the wrong button. The coffee was overflowing as he had to get back into the studio for the rest of his interview. And, yes, I cleaned up his mess.
Also Celebrating Birthdays today: singer/songwriter John Rich, of Big & Rich and formerly of Lonestar; songwriter Marshall Chapman turns 69 (artists like Ronnie Milsap, Emmylou Harris and Sawyer Brown have recorded her songs); pop singer Kenny Loggins turns 71 (he wrote the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “The House at Pooh Corner”); and singer/songwriter (and one of Merle Haggard’s ex’s) Leona Williams turns 76.
Also Born on This Date: “The Jolly Green Giant,” Jack Greene in 1930. A former drummer with Ernest Tubb’s band, he won the first CMA award for Best Male Artist in 1967 and had huge hits with such songs as “Statue of a Fool” and “There Goes My Everything.” Jack died in 2013.
Other milestones: Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott and drummer Chris Tyrrell celebrate their th wedding anniversary today…legendary producer Owen Bradley, who worked with such legends as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, died in 1998 at the age of 82…singer k.d. lang was appointed to the Order of Canada 22 years ago today…Capitol Records in the U.S. decided not to renew Anne Murray’s contract in 1992 (she’d been with the label for 22 years)…both Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb made their Grand Ole Opry debuts on this date in 1950…and the famous Wheeling Jamboree radio show was first broadcast on radio station WWVA in 1933 in Wheeling, West Virginia.