James Robert Owen "Bob" Atcher (May 11, 1914 – October 31, 1993) was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

ian.

Biography

Atcher was born in Hardin County,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, United States, and learned violin and guitar from his father, who was a champion fiddle player. He started out on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

on WHAS, and was offered spots on a number of other stations in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

and

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. In 1939, he was offered a regular gig on

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

station WBBM which was broadcast nationally by CBS. The show made him a national star, and he signed with ARC just before CBS bought the company. After the purchase Atcher was transferred to

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

and then to

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

, both CBS subsidiaries.

Productive Years

Between 1939 and 1942, he recorded many duets with Loeta Applegate, who went by the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

"Bonnie Blue Eyes." Among these was the first No. 1 of Jimmie Davis' " You Are My Sunshine". He scored two solo hits with versions of " I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" and Ernest Tubb's "

Walking the Floor Over You "Walking the Floor Over You" is a country music song written by Ernest Tubb, recorded on April 26, 1941 in Fort Worth, Texas, and released in the United States that year. Allmusic entry for Walking the Floor Over YouRetrieved 14 May 2012 The ...

". On May 5, 1942, in his last session before joining the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

, he and Bonnie Blue Eyes recorded "Pins and Needles (In My Heart)" by Fred Rose, which charted for most of 1943, and went on to become a standard for the wartime era.

Post WWII

After returning to performing in 1946, he charted hits, including "

Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me" is a song first recorded in 1949 by Wayne Raney, written by Raney and his musical partner Lonnie Glosson. Raney had the most successful release of his career, when his version of "Why Don't You Haul Off and Lo ...

" and "I Must Have Been Wrong". Bob's younger brother Randy Atcher also appeared on some of his records. In 1948, Atcher signed on with WLS and became a performer on their '' National Barn Dance''. He also released a

long play The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and ...

(LP) entitled ''Early American Folk Songs'' in 1948, which was among the earliest LPs released by Columbia. In 1950, he signed with

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of not ...

, and later in the 1950s moved to

Kapp Records Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp (who set up American Decca Records in 1934). David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca and RCA Victor. Kapp licensed its records to L ...

. In 1950, he recorded "Christmas Island" with the

Dinning Sisters The Dinning Sisters were an American sisters singing group, active from the late 1930s to 1955. They made a handful of film appearances and had several hit records at the height of their popularity in the late 1940s. The trio originally consiste ...

. He continued with the ''Barn Dance'' well into the 1960s, and re-signed to Columbia that decade, re-recording many of his songs in

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

. Atcher was the star of ''Junior Rodeo'', a television program that debuted on ABC on November 15, 1952. Broadcast on alternate Saturday mornings from Chicago, the Western children's program had members of the audience participating in follow-the-leader activities. Atcher, like

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

, was a shrewd businessman, and bought several businesses and invested in

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, with the proceeds from his career. He was also the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village mostly in Cook County and partly in DuPage County in northeastern Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 78,723. Schaumburg is around northwest of the Chicago Loop and northwest of O'Har ...

from 1959 to 1975. He died on Halloween day in 1993. Atcher Pool in Schaumburg is named after him. Shortly before he died, the Municipal Center in Schaumburg was named in his honor. The center was dedicated in March 1995.

Hillbilly-Folk Chart Hits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atcher, Bob 1914 births 1993 deaths American country singer-songwriters Country musicians from Kentucky People from Hardin County, Kentucky 20th-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Kentucky Okeh Records artists Columbia Records artists