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Songs get
recorded for various reasons. Many times, a song is pitched to
a singer-who just happens to like the song and that’s that!
But on some occasions the artist’s name appears on the label
as co-writer of the tune and in some cases the artist had
nothing at all to do with writing the song but was given part
of the song just to record it!
In an interview
several years ago-Bill Anderson related just such a story in
the case of two of his tunes: “Riverboat” and “Face To
The Wall.”
According to
Anderson, “I had recorded a demo
tape on “Riverboat” and “Face To The Wall,” down at Tree Music
Publishers. Someone had pitched the tape to
Faron Young. About that time,
Faron and I were booked to appear
together on The Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri.
Faron
called and invited me to ride to Springfield with him. During
the trip, we naturally talked about songs. And he mentioned
that he liked those two songs of mine, but if he recorded two
songs by the same writer, the other songwriters would get mad
at him and start giving all their good songs to Webb Pierce.
Then later, Faron commented that
perhaps he could record both my songs after all but only if I
gave him half of one of them.”
“I was never in
favor of giving away part of my songs but by that time,
Faron had had 29 chart singles and
here was Faron Young offering to
record two of my songs.” “So I asked him which song he wanted
half of, scared that he would say “Riverboat.” I was greatly
relieved when he said “Face To The
Wall.”
I guess he could
tell that I wasn’t real happy with the idea of giving up part
of a song so he told me that both songs needed work and that
he would re-write them before he recorded them. I think he
finally changed one line.”
“Riverboat” and
“Face To The Wall” both entered the
country music charts November 16th, 1959.
“Riverboat” peaked at # 4 and was on the charts for 21 weeks.
“Face To The Wall” made it to
number ten and was charted for 18 weeks. “Riverboat” also
scored a # 83 on the pop music
charts.
Doug Davis
Country
Music Classics
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