Johnny Rion on Open Road

Johnny & Ann Rion - Sweat On My Brow (Open Road 17770), 1972

I haven't been familiar with Johnny Rion at all until I purchased this record. I was surprised to see that he had a long and rather successful career in country music, though it was mostly limited to the states of Missouri and Illinois.

Johnny Rion was born on May 20, 1916, in Farmington, Missouri. One of his early influences was Jimmie Rodgers and at the age of 12 years, he bought himself a guitar and learned to play it. Soon, he was appearing at school houses, dances, and other venues. One of his earlier engagements were at KFVS in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1937. Rion also began writing songs which he send to KMOX in St. Louis, hoping to get them performed by the station's radio stars. Later, he could be heard over this station as well and appeared on many of the station's shows, including Pappy Cheshire's National Champion Hillbillies and the Old Fashioned Barn Dance stage show. Rion's "Hit the Trail" became the show's theme song. 

He was also heard on St. Louis' KWK in the 1940s and began recording around 1948, releasing his first singles on the Local Artists label. Then, Rion signed a recording deal with King Records, having his first records issued by August 1949 on this imprint. However, his stint with King did not last long and from that point on, Rion recorded for a great variety of smaller and bigger labels, including Embassy, Coral, ABC-Paramount, Blue Ribbon, New Life, and Open Road. Some of those were his own companies.

Rion wrote songs for many of the better known names in country music, including Rex Allen, Ernest Tubb, the Wilburn Brothers, Benny Martin, Johnnie Lee Wills, Cal Shrum, Skeets Yaney, and others. By 1953, he was a popular disc jockey on KSTL in St. Louis and worked with the station until May 1964. In addition to his radio work and personal appearances, he also operated his own Johnny Rion Hillbilly Park in St. Louis and Illinois from 1950 to 1958. Rion was a local St. Louis country music institution in the 1940s and 1950s. When Elvis Presley came to town in 1955 as part of a Colonel Tom Parker package show, Rion promoted and emceed the show. Rion and his wife Ann soon became friends with the future king of rock'n'roll. They met him again in 1956 at another of his appearances in St. Louis and visited the Elvis Presley Day celebration in Tupelo.

Johnny Rion and his wife Ann with children Priscilla and Danny, 1950s

While he spent much of his earlier career west of the Mississippi River in Missouri, he moved his family to the Illinois side of the area following his departure from KSTL in 1964. He had become a faithful Christian in 1957 and started as a traveling reverend in the 1960s. Rion recorded several gospel albums during his later career. Today's selection comes from one of Rion's own labels, Open Road Records, from the year of 1972 when he was recording mostly sacred material. It features him and his wife Ann on "Sweat on My Brow" with its flip side, "A Faded Gardenia".

He and his wife had a "Cowboy Church Radio Program" on KFMO in Park Hills, Missouri, in the 1980s and 1990s. Johnny Rion passed away on December 31, 1996. Following his death, his wife and his son continued the Cowboy Church programs. Ann Rion passed away in 2006 in Illinois. The British Archive of Country Music has released a 25-track CD entitled "Sunny Tennessee" featuring many of Rion's works.

Recommended reading

• British Archive of Country Music

• Discogs

• SecondHandSongs

• Iron County, Missouri, Historical Society (material by Johnny Rion)

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Ann Rion obituary

• 45cat entry / 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Gospel Jubilee entry

George Stonebreaker on Bejay

George Stonebreaker & the Spydells - Just Talk (Bejay BJ 62080), unknown year

Today’s 45 was released a bit later than my usual selections. It’s from 1980 by an artist called George Stonebreaker. Not much is known about him and from what I read, he was not a professional musician but kept music more as a hobby.

George Williams Stonebreaker III was born 1947. From the information I could turn up, it seems that he spent his early life in San Diego, California, where he met his future wife Vee. His obituary stated that he lived an exciting and busy life, flying airplanes and building steam engines among the many occupations. He also collected Egyptian artifacts.

He made a couple of recordings in the mid to late 1970s and the early 1980s. One of his early discs was for the Nashville based King’s Music City label with a band called the Spydells. Around that time, he and his family had relocated to the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area. In 1980, Stonebreaker and the Spydells recorded for Ben Jack’s Bejay label out of Fort Smith, and the song “Just Talk” is featured today from this single. By the way, the flip side was by a singer called Ann Armstrong (maybe a member of the Spydells) with a song called “Open Road”. Both songs were written by Ludy Qualls but I really don’t have any clue to her identity.

Stonebreaker continued to life in Fort Smith, where he died in 2013 at the age of 66 years.

See also
• Ben Jack on Bejay

Sources
• Discogs
• Find a Grave entry

The Harden Trio on Columbia

The Harden Trio – Husbands and Wives (Columbia 4-43844), 1966

The Harden Trio, comprising Bobby, Robbie, and Arlene Harden, were a rather well-known Arkansas music act. They had a string of country hits in the 1960s but today, we’re taking a look at one of their B sides. In this case, it’s the song “Husbands and Wives” which was the flip side to their hit “Seven Days of Crying”.

The Harden family came from the small town of England, Arkansas, a little southwest of Little Rock. Bobby was born in 1935, followed by sisters Arlene in 1945 and Fern Harden, who was nicknamed “Robbie”. As teenagers, they formed a trio and began performing on national known shows like the Ozark Jubilee and the Louisiana Hayride.

It was Robbie that moved to Nashville first to fill in for Bonnie Brown in The Browns, another country music family act from Arkansas. Both groups had also worked the Ozark Jubilee. Bobby and Arleen followed their sister and the trio was reunited. In 1964, they signed with Columbia Records and released their debut single “Poor Boy”, followed by “Tippy Toeing”, which became a #2 country music hit and also crossed over to the pop charts, reaching #44.

The Harden Trio in the mid 1960s at the time of their hit "Tippy Toeing"

In the wake of their success, more singles appeared on Columbia and today, we’re featuring a song from their fourth release, “Husbands and Wives”. The song was composed by country star Roger Miller and became the B side of their Top 30 country hit “Seven Days of Crying”. Both songs were recorded in August 1966 at the Columbia Studio in Nashville and probably featured, apart from the Hardens, top studio musicians – although the exact line-up is unknown. The single was releases two months later in October. “Husbands and Wives” had been previously released by Miller and it had become a #5 country hit for him, thought it didn’t chart for the Hardens at all.

The Harden Trio released more singles for Columbia until 1968, scoring a few more moderate hits, but disbanded afterwards. All of them pursued their own careers. Bobby and Arlene both had chart success in their own right and also scored hits as songwriters. Robbie went on to tour with Johnny Cash. Bobby Harden died in 2006 in Nashville.

Sources
• Wikipedia entry
• 45cat entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• Bobby Harden Find a Grave entry

Sandy Coker on Decca

Sandy Coker with the Coker Family – Rock Island Ride (Decca 9-30051), 1956

The Coker family is unknown outside of the rockabilly scene and even within this circle, is a rather little known act. However, they were responsible for one of my favorite rockabilly recordings of 1956, “Don’t Go Baby (Don’t Go)”. However, today, we’re focusing on another song from the Coker Family, “Rock Island Ride”, done by Sandy Coker.

The Coker family originated from Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, where Alvis “Al” Coker, Sr. was born in 1918. In Faulkner County, he married Francis Murlean Allen in 1934 – when Alvis was tender 16 years old (Francis was five years his senior). The marriage didn’t last long and when he was 18, Alvis Coker decided to leave Arkansas and relocated to California – like many other people from the south did back then.

Moving to Bakersfield around 1936, he soon fell in love with Geraldine Lindley, married her and in 1938, their daughter Alvidine (Alvadean) was born, followed in 1940 by their son Alvis Jr., nicknamed Sandy. Both Al and Geraldine were musically talented but didn’t pursue a career until their children did. Sandy had taken up the fiddle at the age of ten and a year later, in 1951, he won a local fiddle contest and repeated this success the next year with support from his singing sister, Alvadean. Soon, Al on guitar and Geraldine on bass joined their children and the Coker Family was born. In addition, daughters Caroline on drums and Linda Ann on piano augmented the group.

The Coker Family in 1956

The Coker group gained a spot on KTRB radio in Modesto and it was during one of their radio shows that they were spotted by talent scout, promoter, and label owner Fabor Robinson. He signed Sandy and Alvadean to his Abbott label in 1954. It was especially Alvadean who had a string of releases on the label, including her proto-rockabilly song “I Wanna Bop” and a duet with Jim Reeves, “Are You the One”, which was also released in Canada and the UK. One of the singles that saw release under Sandy’s own name was also released in the UK.

Sandy and Alvadean Coker appeared regularly on Town Hall Party, one of the west coast’s most influential country music TV and radio shows during the 1950s. They also did guest appearances on the Louisiana Hayride. In 1956, the Coker Family signed with Decca Records and traveled to Nashville in July 1956 for a two-day session at the Music City Recordings studio produced by Paul Cohen. This session resulted in enough material for one release each for Alvadean, Sandy, and Al Coker. “Rock Island Ride” is an instrumental number showcasing Sandy's talent on the guitar.

The three Cokers had one more release each on Decca in late 1957/early 1958 but stopped recording afterwards. The family stopped touring at some point and Alvadean raiser her children, moving to Fresno eventually. However, they kept music as a sideline. Al Coker died in 1970 at the age of 52 years, bringing the original act to an end. His wife Geraldine passed away in 2011, Alvadean in 2023 and also Sandy has already passed away. In 1992, the family was inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame. In 2025, Bear Family released a CD entitled "I Wanna Bop" with their complete recorded output.

Sources
• Find a Grave entry for Al Coker and Alvadean Coker
• 45cat entries for Al Coker, Sandy Coker, Alvadean Coker
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• Adam Komorowski: "Classic Rockabilly" (Proper Records), liner notes, 2006

Charlie V. Looper

Charles Looper and the Loopers - She's My Baby Now (Jaggars unreleased)

Charles Verill "Charlie" Looper was born on February 10, 1938, in Bismarck, Hot Spring County, Arkansas, a tiny community southwest of Hot Springs. He was the only son of his Doyle and Eunice Looper but had three sisters - an older one and two younger ones. By 1940, the family had moved within the boundaries of Hot Spring County to an even tinier place called Valley Township.

Batesville Guard
July 24, 1958

He became interested in music and began performing as early as the mid 1950s. We first find mention of Looper in the Hope Star, which mentioned him playing a "string solo". He was performing rockabilly three  years later and appeared at the Melba Theatre with such groups as the Jokers, the Martin Sisters, and the Del Reys. He founded a band called the Loopers eventually and they made a demo rockabilly recording probably in the late 1950s at Jaggars Recording Studio in Little Rock. "She's My Baby Now", which has survived, fortunately, was later reissued on a few compilations put out by Bison/Buffalo Bop and Norton.

Looper joined the US Navy and did service for 30 years. The Navy possibly sent him to the San Francisco area, and it seems he continued his musical ambitions there. In 1963, a band known as "Charlie Looper and the Space Men" recorded a single for the Karl label, which was presumably operated by Barbara Karl. The disc featured "But It Did" and "40 Acres on the Moon", which was oriented towards the softer teen doo-wop market. The record did good enough for him that it was taken over by the Bagdad label in late 1963 as by "Chuck Looper".

Following his retirement from the Navy, Looper worked for the Texas Department of Corrections. He returned to Arkansas and lived with his wife Lacie in Fouke near the Texas border. Looper passed away on June 4, 2017, in Fouke and was buried at Chapelwood Memorial Gardens in Wake Village, Texas, near Texarkana.

Discography

Jaggars No.#: She's My Baby Now / [other side blank] 
Karl R-2223: Charlie Looper and the Space Men - But It Did / 40 Acres on the Moon (1963)
Bagdad SR-1009: Chuck Looper - But It Did / 40 Acres on the Moon (1963)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Rockin' Country Style entry on Charlie V. Looper and Charles Looper

• Find a Grave entry

• Official census records accessed through Ancestry.com

Billy Ray Reynolds on Epic

Billy Ray Reynolds - "I'd Rather Be Your Fool" (Epic #5-10360), 1968

Country music guitarist and songwriter Billy Ray Reynolds is probably best remembered as a guitarist in Waylon Jennings' band, the Waylors, in the 1970s. Though, he left his mark in many different fields of the entertainment business.

Reynolds was born on October 6, 1940, in Saratoga near Mount Olive, Mississippi. His parents were farmers and Reynolds grew up singing church hymns. He became fascinated with country music when he and his parents watched a Grand Ole Opry package tour and Hank Williams was on the bill. Reynolds was nine years old and soon after, picked up the guitar.

He started his career in the 1960s and played bass with folk-rock band "Yankee Dollar" for a short time. The group recorded one album in 1968 for Dot Records. The same year, Reynolds started recording solo for Epic but none of his singles charted. His "I'd Rather Be Your Fool" is featured today and the first of those three records, released in 1968 with "A Real Good Year for Wine" on the flip side. Two more records followed, produced by Glenn Sutton, but success eluded him.

In 1966, Reynolds had first met country singer Waylon Jennings, who was making a name for himself in the Nashville scene at that time. Reynolds joined Jennings' band, the Waylors, and first took part in a session on December 7, 1970, as a rhythm guitarist. Among the songs recorded that day was Kris Kristofferson's "Loving Her Was Easier". Reynolds became an integral part of Jennings' sound and the outlaw country movement. 

Waylon Jennings with Billy Ray Reynolds in the background,
ca. 1973

Reynolds wrote several songs that were recorded by different artists. "Atlanta's Burning Down" was originally recorded by Jennings, although it remained unreleased, and then by Dickey Betts & Great South (Betts was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band). Other hit songs written by Reynolds included "Working Man" (John Conlee, 1985), "Don't Believe My Heart Can Stand Another You" (Tanya Tucker, 1975), or "It'll Be Me" (Tompall Glaser, 1982).

In 1976, Reynolds left the Waylors and continued to work behind the scenes as a songwriter. In the 1980s and 1990s, Reynolds worked as an actor, too, and released his first album in 2002. He moved back to Mount Olive, Mississippi, in 2006, where he continued to record albums. Billy Ray Reynolds passed away on November 29, 2019, at the age of 79 years. After his death, the "Billy Ray Reynolds Country Music Museum" opened in Mount Olive, displaying countless items and memorabilia from his decades-long career.


Waylon Jennings (Billy Ray Reynolds on rhythm guitar): Medley (Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line / Brown Eyed Handsome Man / Loving Her Was Easier) (TV show "That Good Ole Nashville Music", August 1971)


Waylon Jennings (Billy Ray Reynolds on rhythm guitar): "Me and Bobbie McGee" (TV show "Hee Haw", 1972)


Waylon Jennings (Billy Ray Reynolds on rhythm guitar): Medley (Loving Her Was Easier / Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues / Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line) (TV show, 1973)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• International Movie Database

• Robert K. Oerman: "Noted songwriter/guitarist Billy Ray Reynolds passes"  (Musicrow.com, 2019)

• SecondHandSongs

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Rebecca Turner: "Mt. Olive opens museum to honor country great Billy Ray Reynolds" (Our Missisippi Home, 2022)

• Billy Ray Reynolds - Remembers Waylon Jennings

Bill Wimberly on Mercury

Bill Wimberly and the Country Rhythm Boys - At the Old Town Hall (Mercury 70900X45), 1956

In the mid 1950s, Bill Wimberly was a successful and popular western swing band leader. He recorded for Mercury with his band, the Country Rhythm Boys, and fronted the house band of the Ozark Jubilee, one of the nation's top country music TV shows. However, his own demons caused a dramatic fall down of his music career.

William Leroy "Bill" Wimberley was born in Avant, Oklahoma, on June 29, 1924, and began his career in Tulsa, a hat bed for western swing music. Wimberly (he would drop the "e" in his last name) began working with Bob and Johnnie Lee Wills in the early 1940s. He served during World War II and upon his discharge, resumed his music career.

Advertisement for a mid 1950s appearance
of Wimberly, Tex Ritter, and Smiley Burnette at the
Hitchcock County Fair in Culberson, Nebraska

By 1950, he was the leader of a band that regularly performed over KGNO in Dodge City, Kansas. By 1953, he had switched to KFH in Wichita, Kansas, heading the station’s house band, the Arkansas Valley Boys. This band had been on the station as early as 1939 but the original band had been long gone. However, KFH maintained the rights to the name and kept the group running as their house band. The line-up changed several times over the years but under the leadership of Wimberly, included top-western swing musicians of the time.

Wimberly and the band made their first recordings in 1954 for Morton Levand's independent Tex Records. By the time of their last Tex disc in 1955, the band had been renamed the "Country Rhythm Boys" and switched to Mercury in early 1956. By then, the band had been renamed Country Rhythm Boys and had become part of the Ozark Jubilee from Springfield, Missouri, an ABC televised show hosted by Red Foley. Until then, Wimberly and the band had been of regional fame but the Ozark Jubilee put them on the national scene.

They recorded several fine sides for Mercury, including the hot swinging “At the Old Town Hall” with Bill Taylor (real name Bill Tanner) on vocals. The song was written by Hugh Ashley, a songwriter and musician from Harrison, Arkansas. It was released in the summer of 1956 but did not crack the charts, as western swing's popularity had already faded then. Wimberly and the Country Rhythm Boys made their last recordings for Mercury in October 1956, which were released on an album.

Bill Wimberly and the Country Rhythm Boys
(taken from a 1956 Ozark Jubilee souvenir book)

Though, they kept on appearing at the Ozark Jubilee, alternating with Grady Martin's group as the show's house band. In 1957, Wimberly came in conflict with the law, which included his involvement in a fake Pat Boone concert in Illinois. His troubles caused him to leave the Jubilee (being replaced by Merl Lindsay) and his career was virtually over. A few recordings appeared in 1958 on Starday but those were the last he ever made. Little is known about the years after 1958 apart from the fact that he continued to be a band-leader but without much recognition.

He died largely unnoticed on June 11, 1998, in Tulsa. BACM released a 23 track CD with Wimberly's complete recordings in 2010.

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music-com entries for the KFH Arkasas Valley Boys and the Country Rhythm Boys 

• 45cat entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Kevin Coffey: "At the Old Town Hall" (2010), liner notes, British Archive of Country Music

Jimmie Logsdon on REM

Jimmie Logsdon - My Son Calls Another Man Daddy (REM 45-501), 1963

Jimmie Logsdon, sometimes also spelled as "Jimmy", is best remembered nowadays for his short but intense time at Roulette Records as a rockabilly singer, though this only represents a rather short and small portion of his career. He was deeply rooted into gospel and country music, an admirer of Hank Williams, and his music clearly shows that.

James Lloyd Logsdon was born on April 1, 1922, in a small place called Panther, Northeast Kentucky, to Reverend Lloyd Oscar Logsdon and his wife Rosa Lee. He had several older half-siblings, as his father's first wife had died in 1920. He had a younger sister named Martha Jean, born in 1926. His father's occupation as a minister caused the family to move a lot within the state of Kentucky. During the first 15 years of his life, Logsdon was exclusively exposed to gospel music but later discovered secular country music and blues while living in southeastern Kentucky. He also became aware of rhythm & blues later on.

Logsdon graduated from high school in Ludlow, Kentucky, in 1940 and married his first wife. Contrary to many other of his fellow musicians, Logsdon did not learn to play guitar as a child and did not play in a band at first. He worked a day job during most of the 1940s and served during World War II on an Air Force base in Texas. Upon his return in 1946, he opened a radio shop in La Grange, Kentucky, and his business included selling used records. At this point, he decided to try his luck in the music business. He bought a guitar and learned to play it.

Billboard December 27, 1952

His first spot was a fifteen-minutes show on WLOU in Louisville from 1950 to 1952, then switching to WINN as an announcer. During this time, he recorded a few demo tapes and in late 1951, his first record appeared on the Harvest label, financed by local entrepreneur Art Rhodes. By then, Logsdon had founded his own band. He opened a show for his idol Hank Williams when he came to Louisville in 1952. Williams was impressed enough to recommend Logsdon to Paul Cohen, Decca Records' Nashville head and soon Logsdon found himself recording for the major label.

His first session was held in October 1952 at the Castle Studio with some of the Nashville top studio musicians. This session yielded his first single on Decca, "That's When I'll Love You the Best" b/w "I Wanna Be Mama'd" (#28502). He got a popularity boost in 1953 when he started his own television show on WHAS-TV and several more singles followed until late 1954, but none of them became a hit. Decca dropped him and the divorce from his first wife added to the following downfall, which resulted in drug abuse and a six-month-stay in hospital. His manager Vic McAlpin got him on Dot for a single in 1955 and another one for Starday in 1957 but these did not catch on either. It was McAlpin's idea to change music styles. In 1957 and 1958, Logsdon recorded rockabilly for Roulette as "Jimmy Lloyd", which became his best-known sides. "Where the Rio de Rosa Flows" (later covered by Carl Perkins), "I Got a Rocket in My Pocket", and "You're Gone, Baby" became classics of the genre. 

Jimmie Logsdon at WCKY (Cincinnati, Ohio)

He took a break from recording in the years to come and instead concentrated on his radio work, mostly in Cincinnati. He recorded a couple of country and gospel EPs for his own label in 1962. Today's selection was part of a 1963 EP that was released on the Kentucky based REM label. "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy" was - of course - a cover version of the Hank Williams song. The record contained more Williams numbers as well as gospel songs.

The same year, Logsdon signed with King Records, releasing a few more singles and an album. He continued to work in radio in Kentucky and Alabama as well. Another EP on Rusty York's Jewel label and a last 45 single on Clark Country followed, before Logsdon decided to quit music business in 1972 and took a job with the Kentucky Labor Department the following year. He recorded his last album in 1981 for Jewel and spent his last years working in his brother-in-law's swimming pool business, performing in clubs in his spare time. He passed away on October 7, 2001, in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of 79 years.

Since the late 1970s, his Roulette recordings have been consequently reissued, providing him a place in the heart of European rockabilly fans, but his other work remained largely unknown. Bear Family released his complete 1950s output on a CD entitled "I Got a Rocket In My Pocket" in 1993. BACM has dedicated a 23-tracks CD to his country and gospel work.

Recommended reading

• Bear Family Records

• British Archive of Country Music

• SecondHandSongs

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• 45cat entry

• 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• This Is My Story biography

Hoosierland Barn Dance

The Star Press August 6, 952

From the state of Indiana, a lot of country live stage shows originated. Some of them were bigger and reached out to more distant locations, others were small shows on a local level. One of those smaller shows was the Hoosierland Barn Dance, which was broadcast by WLBC out of Muncie, Indiana.

WLBC went on the air in 1926 and its sister station, WLBC-FM, in 1947. I first found mention of the Hoosierland Barn Dance in August 1952, when the local Star Press newspaper carried advertisements for the show. The show took place on Saturday evenings at the Gibson Arena, a roller skating rink that first opened in 1940, and the show was broadcast on WLBC from 10 pm to midnight. The Hoosierland Barn Dance was centered around Tex White and his band, the Tennessee Ramblers, but also included other artists, including at one time or another Jesse Stone, Earl Hoover, George Riddle (who would go on to be a member of George Jones' Jones Boys band), Dick Morgan, the Rhythm Serenaders, the Midwestern Trailriders, Chuck Smith, and others.

White had been born in Texas and spent some time on WCYB in Bristol, Tennessee, before relocating to Indiana. He had a morning program on WLBC when he started the Hoosierland Barn Dance. The show was still running in April 1953 but I could not find any info on how long it ran.

If anyone out there has more knowledge or recollections about the Hoosierland Barn Dance, feel free to leave a comment or send an e-mail!

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Tex White Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Gibson Arena info on Ice Hockey Wiki

• George Riddle obituary

• Wikipedia entries for WMUN (former WLBC-AM) and WLBC-FM

George Kent

George Kent, ca. early 1960s

"Hello, I'm a Jukebox" by George Kent was one of my favorites when I started listening to country music. The song was written by legendary composer Tom T. Hall, and became Kent's biggest record, reaching #26 in Billboard's Hot Country Songs early in 1970. It was recorded in 1969 with the wonderful background voice of Diana Duke.

George Olen Kent, Jr., was born on June 12, 1935, to George Olen, Sr., and Edna Kent in Dallas, Texas, where he was raised with his brother Roland and his siter JoAnne. In the 1950s, he joined the Army Reserves, serving for four years, and afterwards began working with the Dallas Police Department.

However, music had been a passion for Kent for some time and in the late 1950s, he started his career as a country music singer. He began performing around Dallas and joined the Big D Jamboree, a nationally known live stage show that originated from the Dallas Sportarium and aired over KRLD. In the early 1960s, Kent also appeared on the Cowtown Hoedown and the Cowtown Jamboree from Fort Worth. 

Fort Worth Star Telegram
September 8, 1961

In 1959, Kent began recording for Maverick Records, a Dallas based label that also recorded such artists as Ronnie Dawson. Kent cut a total of four singles for the label, of which the third "Hall of Shame" enjoyed some local success. He held two demo sessions in 1961 and 1962 and one of the songs was "How Can I Write On Paper What I Feel In My Heart", which he co-wrote. The demo made it to Nashville and was pitched to Jim Reeves, whose version became #7 Billboard country hit in 1961. His "Forget Me Not", co-written with Eddie McDuff, was recorded by Bruce Chanel, Margie Singleton, and J. Frank Wilson.

This opened doors for him in Music City USA and he signed with the Dial label having his two singles for the label produced by Buddy Killen. The 1960s saw Kent hopping from one Nashville indie label to another, recording for Dial (1962-1963), Rice (1964-1967), Roulette (1965), Starday (1966-1967), Athena (1968), and Plantation (1968). Finally, in 1969, Kent signed with Mercury Records and enjoyed his most successful time with this label.

In August 1969, he cut "Hello, I'm a Jukebox", a recitation with Diana Duke's "Tonight, the Juke Box Plays for Me" in the background. The song was released by Mercury in November that year and it became #26 country hit for Kent early the following year. It also got Diana Duke a Mercury recording contract on her own, waxing a new version of "Tonight, the Juke Box Plays for Me". A few more singles followed on Mercury, though Kent could not repeat the success of "Hello, I'm a Juke Box". During the 1970s, he had a few more low-charting singles and returned to the Rice label in 1971 for four singles. He switched to Shannon Records for three years, beginning in 1973. His last records came out on the Cin Kay and Soundwaves labels in 1977. 

George Kent in the mid-1970s
Shannon Records promotional picture

In 1980, Kent and his wife Jeanne left Nashville and purchaed the Cow Palace in Fort Collins, a popular live music venue in Fort Collins, Colorado, north of Denver. Kent also performed on the Palace's stage and a former member of his band remembered in 2014: "George was quite the writer in his own right and taught us a lot. He allowed musicians to grew and was always there with an ear." The Kents sold the Cow Palace in 1997. They purchased land to raise horses. George Kent passed away on August 12, 2010, at McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Colorado. He was 75 years old.

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• SecondHandSongs

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• From the Vaults Boppin' Bob