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Posted by Don Streeter Regards, P.S: Check out the Is Have it at www.myclassiccountry.com tomorrow morning and you may get to hear the actual live recording if Bucks can find it. I asked him to play it for his Today In Country Music feature which is broadcast just before 9AM EDT on his show daily.
on 22/5/2007, 9:55 pm
67.39.21.74
To All,
Well on our trip to Nashville last month, we couldn't get through the Country Music Hall of Fame (HOF) in one day and read everthing on all the displays, so we bought a year's membership as it was cheaper than paying for two full admissions for two people. Well, with a year's membership they send you their nice calendar, and for May 23rd they note Jim's first appearance on the Grand Old Opry. Well, I have the CD that the Country Music Foundation (CMF) put out and it has the actual recording of Jim's first Opry appearance singing Mexican Joe which was at the top of the Billboard Charts that week in 1953, so it was 54 years ago tomorrow that it happened. The liner notes state that Hank Snow was the one who introduced Jim on the Prince Albert Show portion of the Opry, and that an average of 10 Million people a week listened to the show, which was broadcast nation wide on the NBC Radio Network, and was also recorded and made into transcription records by R.J. Reynolds Co. for playing the show later on off-network stations. That is how it got made into an album as the HOF/CMF had the transcription recordings of Jim from 1953-1960 in their archives. So Jim got a lot of exposure for his first hit, and it was the launching pad for a great but unfortunately short career for him personnaly.
Don
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