|
Press Release March 4, 2002
BMI Legend Harlan Howard Dies
By Robert K. Oermann
Legendary BMI writer Harlan Howard, a member of the
Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, died suddenly on
Sunday evening , March 3, in Nashville. He was 74.
In a career that spanned six decades, Howard penned more than 100
Top 10 hits. The man behind such timeless songs as "I Fall To Pieces," "Busted,"
"I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" and "Heartaches By the Number" was once dubbed
"the Irving Berlin of country music" because of the size of his catalog of
classics. A BMI writer for over 45 years, Harlan Howard provided hit songs to
several generations of stars, from Kitty Wells to Patty Loveless, from Patsy Cline to Reba
McEntire, from Mel Tillis to Pam Tillis. A
who's-who of the country music world has sung his compositions: ? George Jones,
Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, the
Judds, Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price and Conway Twitty, to name just a few. But his
songs have also enjoyed R&B and pop interpretations by a variety of artists
such as Ray
Charles, Joe Simon, Shirley Caesar, Brenda Lee, The Kingston Trio, Kay Starr
and Burl Ives.
At the 1994
BMI Country Awards: Patty Loveless, Kostas, Sony/Tree's Donna Hilley,
BMI's Roger Sovine, Harlan Howard, and BMI"s Frances Preston celebrate
Song of the Year "Blame It On Your Heart" |
Among his numerous accolades were 45 BMI Country Awards, 4 BMI Pop
Awards and two BMI R&B Awards. BMI President & CEO Frances Preston, who
met Howard almost 40 years ago, remembered, "When Harlan was inducted into the
Songwriters’ Hall of Fame several years ago, he said he was surprised he was
being honored by people in New York when he so rarely crossed Tennessee’s
Cumberland River. Harlan himself may have stayed close to his Nashville home,
but his songs were his ambassadors to the rest of the world and the world loved
him for it.
Greeting
Roger Miller and Waylon Jennings at the 1990
Harlan Howard Birthday Bash |
"He understood the spirit of creative collaboration and was
willing to share his melodies and his words with other songwriters -- those who
were his contemporaries and those who came to "the master" to learn the art. He
was generous with his gifts and another generation of successful songwriters is
grateful to him for showing them the way.
"Harlan was my friend and I will miss him," concluded
Preston.
With
co-host Tammy Wynette and Mark Knopfler at the 1990 Birthday Bash |
Harlan Perry Howard was born September 8, 1927 in Detroit,
Michigan. After a difficult childhood in a number of foster homes, he dropped
out of school in the ninth grade and became a manual laborer. After military
service, he settled in Los Angeles in 1955 and began driving a forklift in a
printing factory.
At the 1961
BMI Country Awards: BMI's Frances Preston and Robert J. Burton, Harlan
Howard, Joe Allison and Buck Owens |
As a boy, he'd been captivated by the music of Ernest Tubb and had
begun writing song lyrics. In California, he socialized with other country-music
lovers; one of his early writing partners was Buck Owens. His first publishing
deal came courtesy of cowboy stars Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond.
With Buck
Owens at the 1998 Birthday Bash |
Grand Ole Opry star Charlie Walker launched Howard's hit writing
career in 1958 with "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down." The following year,
"Heartaches B y the Number" topped both the country and the pop hit parades in
versions by Ray Price and Guy Mitchell.
After writing for Kitty Wells, Warren Smith and Jan Howard (his
wife from 1957 to 1967), Harlan Howard moved to Nashville in June 1960. Along
with fellow BMI writers Bill Anderson, Boudleaux &
Felice Bryant, Willie Nelson, Mel Tillis, Danny
Dill, Marijohn Wilkin, John D. Loudermilk and Roger Miller, he was among the
first full-time songwriting professionals in the city.
Working at Pamper Music, he collaborated on songs with Hank Cochran,
with whom he cowrote Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" and George Jones' "You
Comb Her Hair." At one point in 1961 Harlan Howard had 15 songs on the country
popularity charts at the same time , a feat not equaled since. BMI gave him 10
songwriting awards that year of the 39 songs on the "most performed" list and he
was named Billboard magazine's songwriter of the year in 1962 and 1963.
Prominence as a writer led to recording his own albums in 1961,
1965, 1967 and 1971. But the finest collection of his songs came with a 1967
tribute LP by Waylon Jennings, titled Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan. During his
career, Jennings recorded more than 40 of Howard's songs, far more than any
other artist.
Howard was Jennings' songwriting mentor and his bonds with other
artists were equally strong. Harlan Howard helped Bobby Bare obtain an RCA
recording contract and lobbied for Conway Twitty's transition from teen pop idol
to country superstar. He also opened doors on Music Row for current star Sara Evans.
Howard's peers began calling him "Mr. Songwriter" after Ray
Charles won a Grammy Award with "Busted" in 1963. Originally recorded by Johnny
Cash, that song is one of a number of Harlan Howard compositions that have been
recorded multiple times. Others include "Life Turned Her That Way," "The Chokin'
Kind," "Yours Love," "Above and Beyond," "I Fall To Pieces," "The Key 's In the
Mailbox" and "Too Many Rivers."
In 1982, Opry star John Conlee revived "Busted" and introduced "I
Don' t Remember Loving You" and "Nothing Behind You (Nothing in Sight)".
Thereafter, a new generation of Nashville stars began singing his songs. Reba
McEntire ("Somebody Should Leave"), The Judds ("Why Not Me"), Highway 101
("Somewhere Tonight") and others extended Howard's hit streak through the 1980s.
In the 1990s Pam Tillis ("Don't Tell Me What To Do"), Doug Stone
("These Lips Don' t Know How To Say Goodbye"), Collin Raye ("All I Can Be") and
more had hits with Harlan Howard songs. Trisha Yearwood and Aaron Neville won a
Grammy Award for their 1994 revival of "I Fall To Pieces." At the 1994 BMI
Country Awards banquet, Howard's "Blame It O n Your Heart," co-written with
Kostas and recorded by Patty Loveless, was named BMI Country Song of the Year.
His presence on Music Row was such that that for a dozen years
(1983-95 ) the community celebrated the "Harlan Howard Birthday Bash," an
all-star concert staged in the BMI Nashville parking lot as a benefit for
songwriter organizations. Declining health forced him to discontinue these
events after 1995. He and fifth wife Melanie Howard continued to run his song
publishing business, however, and they aided such developing writers as Jackson
Leap and Bobbie Cryner.
Harlan Howard was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of
Fame in 1973 and, in 1997, both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame. Survivors, in addition to his wife, Melanie Howard,
are sons Perry Howard (BMI Nashville Associate Director, Writer/Publisher
Relations) and Carter "Corky" Howard, daughters Clementine Howard and Jennifer
Howard Carmella, granddaughter Michele Carmella, and brother Milton Howard.
Visitation at Nashville's Roesch-Patton-Austin-Bracey &
Charlton funeral home (1715 Broadway) is scheduled for Tuesday, March 5 from
11am - 2pm and 6pm - 8pm and again on Wednesday, March 6 from 11am - 2pm. There
will be a private family service on Wednesday.
A memorial service has been set for Tuesday, March 19th, from 2-4
p.m. at the Ryman Auditorium.
The Howard family has requested memorial donations to The Harlan
Howard Music Scholarship Fund, SunTrust Bank, 1206 17th Ave. S., Nashville, TN
37212. (reference account number 7021676536).
Harlan
Howard's Hit Songs
1958:
"Pick Me Up on Your Way Down" ? Charlie Walker
1959:
"Heartaches by the Number" ? Ray Price
"Heartaches by the
Number" ? Guy Mitchell
"Mommy for a Day" ? Kitty Wells
1960:
"Excuse
Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)" ? Buck Owens
"Above and Beyond" ? Buck
Owens
"I Don't Believe I'll Fall in Love Today" ? Warren Smith
"The One
You Slip Around With" ? Jan Howard
"I Wish I Could Fall in Love Today" ? Ray
Price
"The Everglades" ? The Kingston Trio
"The Key's in the Mailbox" ?
Freddie Hart
1961:
"I Fall to Pieces" ? Patsy Cline
"Heartbreak
U.S.A." ? Kitty Wells
"Under the Influence of Love" ? Buck Owens
"Foolin' Around" ? Buck Owens
"Foolin' Around" ? Kay Starr
"The
Blizzard" ? Jim Reeves
"Odds and Ends" ? Warren Smith
"Three Steps to
the Phone" ? George Hamilton IV
1962:
"Call Me Mr. In-Between" ? Burl
Ives
"Second Hand Rose (Second Hand Heart)" ? Roy Drusky
"Mary Ann
Regrets" ? Burl Ives
"Sally Was a Good Old Girl" ? Hank Cochran
1963:
"Busted" ? Johnny Cash
"Busted" ? Ray Charles
"You Comb
Her Hair" ? George Jones
"You Took Her Off My Hands" ? Ray Price
"Don't
Call Me from a Honky-Tonk" ? Johnny & Jonie Mosby
"Another Bridge to
Burn" ? Jimmy Dickens
"The Deepening Snow" ? Johnny Darrell
1964:
"I Won't Forget You" ? Hank Snow
"Your Heart Turned Left" ? George Jones
"Go Cat Go" ? Norma Jean
"Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In" ?
Johnny & Jonie Mosby
"It Takes One to Know One" ? Jimmy Martin
"Life
Turned Her That Way" ? Jimmy Dickens
1965:
"Too Many Rivers" ? Brenda
Lee
"I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" ? Buck Owens
"I Wouldn't Buy a Used
Car from Him" ? Norma Jean
"Someone's Gotta Cry" ? Jean Shepard
"She's
Gone, Gone, Gone" ? Lefty Frizzell
"What Makes a Man Wander?" ? Jan Howard
"Take Him Fishing" ? Tex Ritter
"Meanwhile Down at Joe's" ? Kitty Wells
1966:
"The Hurtin's All Over" ? Connie Smith
"The Minute Men" ?
Stonewall Jackson
"Evil on Your Mind" ? Jan Howard
"Streets of
Baltimore" ? Bobby Bare
"Look Into My Teardrops" ? Conway Twitty
"Time
to Bum Again" ? Waylon Jennings
"Green River" ? Waylon Jennings
"It's
All Over But the Crying" ? Kitty Wells
"I've Cried a Mile" ? Hank Snow
1967:
"Heaven Help the Working Girl" ? Norma Jean
"The Chokin'
Kind" ? Waylon Jennings
"Life Turned Her That Way" ? Mel Tillis
"Any Old
Way You Do" ? Jan Howard
1968: "It's All Over But the Crying" ? Hank Williams
Jr.
"He's a Good Old Boy" ? Arlene Hardin
"Baby Me, Baby" ? Johnny
Duncan
"California Sunshine" ? Waylon Jennings
"Yours Love" ? Waylon
Jennings
"I Wish I Felt This Way at Home" ? Dolly Parton
1969:
"The Chokin' Kind" ?Joe Simon
"Yours Love" ? Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton
"Thinking �Bout You Babe" ? Billy Walker
"Odds and Ends" ? Tompall &
The Glaser Brothers
1970:
"Watermelon Time in Georgia" ? Lefty
Frizzell
"She's a Little Bit Country" ? George Hamilton IV
1971:
"Sunday Morning Christian" ? Harlan Howard
"He Called Me Baby" ? Candi
Staton
1972:
"The Key's in the Mailbox" ? Tony Booth
1973:
"Streets of Baltimore" ? Gram Parsons
1974:
"No Charge" ? Melba
Montgomery
"She Called Me Baby" ? Charlie Rich
1975:
"No Charge"
? Shirley Caesar
1978:
"Toddy for the Body" ? Bobby Bare
1980:
"Sally Was a Good Old Girl" ? Hank Cochran
"She's Gone,
Gone, Gone" ? The New South
1981:
"All Fall Down" ? Kris Kristofferson
1982:
"Busted" ? John Conlee
"I Don't Remember Loving You" ? John
Conlee
"Nothing Behind You (Nothing in Sight)" ? John Conlee
1984:
"I Don't Know a Thing About Love" ? Conway Twitty
"You're a
Hard Dog to Keep Under the Porch" ? Gail Davies
1985:
"Why Not Me?" ?
The Judds
"Somebody Should Leave" ? Reba McEntire
1987:
"Somewhere Tonight" ? Highway 101
"Too Many Rivers" ? The Forester
Sisters
"Never Mind" ? Nanci Griffith
1988:
"Life Turned Her That
Way" ? Ricky Van Shelton
"I Wish That I Could Fall in Love Today" ? Barbara
Mandrell
"I'm Down to My Last Cigarette" ? K. D. Lang
1989:
"Above
and Beyond" ? Rodney Crowell
"She's Gone, Gone, Gone" ? Glen Campbell
1991:
"These Lips Don't Know How to Say Goodbye" ? Doug Stone
"Don't Tell Me What to Do" ? Pam Tillis
"The Key's in the Mailbox" ?
Barbara Mandrell
"All I Can Be (Is a Sweet Memory)" ? Collin Raye
1993:
"Blame it on Your Heart" ? Patty Loveless
1994:
"I
Fall to Pieces" Trisha Yearwood & Aaron Neville
1997:
"I've Got
a Tiger by the Tail" ? Sara Evans
1999:
"I Fall to Pieces" ? LeAnn
Rimes
Links:
Updates:
To send information or pictures, send an email to The Genealogy Tree webmaster. Any document or picture format is OK.
|
