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I get asked a lot about how I
came to write the song, “Once More.”
Actually, it was the easiest
song I ever wrote. In the summer of 1956, my band, The Rodeo
Boys, Donna Darlene, and I were coming back home to Wheeling,
West Virginia from a gig in Warren, Pennsylvania. Of course
it was late, approaching midnight, and I was driving. Donna
was sitting in the middle next to me. All of a sudden, a
melody with some words began to come into my head. As I began
to sing the lines, I got excited and asked Donna to get some
paper and a pen. All she could find was a paper bag. I
dictated the complete song to her in 20 minutes!
We had a trio in the band, so
as Donna and I sang the song, the third voice joined in, and
we thought it sounded pretty good. We rehearsed it all the way
back to Wheeling and the days after, until we were confident
we could do the song in public. That Saturday we performed it
for the first time on the Wheeling Jamboree.
A few weeks later, in August
of 1956, we recorded it on my record label, Admiral Records.
That was the first recording of “Once More” and to date the
song has been recorded over 100 times through the years. The
Osborne Brothers were the second. They recorded it for MGM in
1958 and the song hit the charts for them. Roy Acuff recorded
it on Hickory Records just weeks after the Osbornes. Both
versions were on the charts.
There is a story behind
Acuff’s recording of “Once More.” In 1957 I moved to the
Tampa, Florida area and the band scattered, with Buddy Spicher
and Donna Darlene going to Nashville. Donna shared the song
with Shot Jackson, who took it to Roy, saying, “I’ve got your
next hit here!” Roy hadn’t had a hit for 10 years. The DJs
weren’t playing him either. When Roy’s version came out, the
DJs jumped on it and it jump-started his comeback.
A few years later, I ran into
Roy backstage at the Opry, and he invited me to go on stage
with him for his show. I sat on one of those park benches
while he started his show. In the middle of it, he called me
to the microphone and said to the people, “I want you to meet
the man who wrote ‘Once More’ and salvaged my career.” The
audience gave me a standing ovation!
“Once More” has really been
good to the Owenses in many ways, but the greatest thrill of
all was to watch it become a classic in Country Music. The
list of those who have recorded it reads like a “who’s who”:
George Jones and Melba Montgomery, Porter Wagoner and Dolly
Parton, Hank Locklin, Red Sovine, Bill Anderson, Don Gibson, The Kendalls,
Vince Gill and Here Today, Leona Williams, Shoji Tobuchi, Floyd
Cramer, The Desert Rose Band, just to mention a few.
I often pray, “Lord, I thank
you for this gift, but do you mind doing it just “Once More”!
Dusty Owens
TCM Radio News
(“Once More” was a # 8 hit for Roy
Acuff in 1958, a # 13 hit for The Osborne Brothers and Red
Allen in 1958 and a # 66 hit for Leona Williams in 1969 – Doug
Davis, Country Music Classics)
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