(215) NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME

This link takes you to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors list.

http://www.nndb.com/honors/545/000129158/

Among the honorees mentioned in this blog are Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Mac Davies, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, and Gene Autry.

Use the Google search feature above to read what we have to say about these talented people and the music!

(53) CROONER or COUNTRY? WAYLON? FABIAN? HOW ABOUT BOBBY DARIN?

So Elvis was worried about Waylon Jennings and Fabian, and personally I think it was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who decided it was best for Elvis to show his versatility by going more crooner than country.

Then again, Elvis may have seen that Bobby Darin was also making a move towards crooner with his success with "Mac the Knife" in 1959. It was the number one record in 1959 in the United States and in Great Britian!

Here's a You Tube presentation of Bobby Darin doing Mac, another suited up Rock and Roller, going the way of the Frank Sinatra "Rat Pack."

No matter what direction Elvis took musically, he would never give up singing Gospel music.

Video updated January 26, 2011.

(52) ELVIS WORRIES ABOUT HIS COMPETITION : WAYLON JENNINGS

Elvis also confided in me that he was worried Waylon Jennings as his competition. I honestly don't know exactly why but someone told Elvis he could sound like him. Lots of singers were imitating Elvis. Usually he was honored if one of us tried to.

Now Waylon is today known for being a Country Music "outlaw," but in 1960 Waylon was just about a year away from being on a Rock and Roll tour. Waylon was from Texas, just like Buddy Knox and Buddy Holly were, and he was once considered Holly's protege. He started out in Rockabilly.

He was on tour with the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly when the plane crash killed them. There wasn't enough room for him on the plane. He had stayed behind and avoided the same fate. I never met Waylon, but I admired him. Buddy Knox and I knew that he had been shaken, confronting Fate and his own mortality after that crash. Just as we had.

RCS discography for Waylon in his early years.

http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/j/jenn1000.htm

And here is Waylon's official website linked above!

Replaced 1/11/2011 with WAYLON JENNINGS OFFICIAL (WITH WILLIE NELSON)