(359) LONELY WEEKENDS A SONG MADE A HIT FIRST BY CHARLIE RICH, COVERED BY MANY, A SONGWRITER'S DREAM

It's a songwriter's dream to write a song that is recorded - and made a hit - by others - maybe many others. Today there's an emphasis on an artist writing and recording and making a hit of their own song or the songs of the entire band, but the COVER TUNE ERA HAS NEVER REALLY ENDED! Charlie Rich, who I met when touring the south, made this one a hit first.



The song was written by Charlie Rich himself, and ended up being covered by The Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, even Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers! Those song writing residuals keep coming in!



LINKING TO THE OFFICIAL CHARLIE RICH web site!

(138) MY PEERS AND THEIR CELEBRITY

Friends, the next several blogs are meant to help you keep Elvis, me, and our peers in musical perspective.

While I was working at the songwriting factory, ambitious to write songs that would be hits for other artists, people like Gene Vincent, Bobby Darin, Ersel Hickey, The Everly Brothers, Pat Boone, and Dion and the Bellmonts, continued to perform, make records, and have hits. I was so proud to know them and to be associated with them. I knew that keeping celebrity was more difficult than becoming one. And though Melodie D'Amour had done well and I promoted it with live performances and radio interviews, bit by bit I was receding from public life even as the Hollywood bug continued to bite me.