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My Big John
"My Big John" is a song written by Jean Dean, Ira Louvin and Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers, and J. Newman. The song was recorded by American country music artist Dottie West, as an answer song to Jimmy Dean's hit "Big Bad John "Big Bad John" is a country music, country song written and originally performed by Jimmy Dean. It was released in September 1961 and by the beginning of November it had gone to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It won ...". It was released in October 1961 as her third release on Starday Records. The B-side is a track tilted, "Men With Evil Hearts" Song background The song is told from the point of view of the "Cajun Queen" that drove John away – her search for him, then discovering about his death. The song follows the same format as "Big Bad John" except that the chorus intoning the title periodically is made up of male voices and is sung in a different key; unusually for "answer songs", the composer of the ori ...
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Dottie West
Dottie West (born Dorothy Marie Marsh; October 11, 1932 – September 4, 1991) was an American country singer and songwriter. She also had several credits as an actress. A distinguished figure in the country genre, West was among several people who helped to elevate the platform of female country artists. She was also known for mentoring up-and-coming artists and being the first woman to win a country music accolade from the Grammy Awards. West's exposure to country music in childhood influenced her continued music education at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. After marrying, the family moved to Ohio, where West made her first appearances singing on regional television. Her aspirations to write and record country led to West getting a Starday Records recording contract in 1959. West and her family then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she continued recording and releasing unsuccessful singles for Starday. In 1963, West signed with RCA Victor, where she had first success. He ...
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Country Music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing Narrative, stories about Working class in the United States, working-class and blue-collar worker, blue-collar American life. Country music is known for its ballads and dance tunes (i.e., "Honky-tonk#Music, honky-tonk music") with simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic guitar, acoustic, electric guitar, electric, steel guitar, steel, and resonator guitar, resonator guitars). Though it is primarily rooted in various forms of American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including African-American, Music of Mexico, Mexican, Music of Ireland, Irish, and ...
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Starday Records
Starday Records was an American record label producing traditional country music during the 1950s and 1960s. History The label began in 1952 in Beaumont, Texas, when local businessmen Jack Starnes (Lefty Frizzell's manager) and Houston record distributor Harold W. Daily (better known as "Pappy") decided to form a record label. The Starday name is a combination of Starnes' and Daily's last names. After four releases, former Four Star vice president Don Pierce was brought into the fold and the three men founded the Starday Recording and Publishing Company. Soon after, Starnes sold his shares out to Pierce. In the mid-1950s, Art Talmadge of Mercury Records made Starday a unique proposition, whereby Mercury contracted out all production of Country and Bluegrass music to Starday Records. This move proved not to be the success Mercury had hoped it would be, and this resulted in an acrimonious split between Daily and Pierce. Daily joined Mercury records as an A&R man/Talent Scout, whi ...
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Ira Louvin
Ira Lonnie Loudermilk (April 21, 1924 – June 20, 1965), known professionally as Ira Louvin, was an American country music singer, mandolinist and songwriter. He was a cousin of songwriter John D. Loudermilk. Biography Ira Louvin was born in Section, Alabama, and played together with his brother, Charlie, in the close harmony tradition as the Louvin Brothers The Louvin Brothers were an American musical duo composed of brothers Ira and Charlie Louvin (''né'' Loudermilk). The brothers are cousins to John D. Loudermilk, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member. The brothers wrote and performed .... They were heavily influenced by the Delmore Brothers and Monroe Brothers. Ira played mandolin with Charlie Monroe, guitar player of the Monroe Brothers in the early 1940s. The Louvin Brothers' songs were heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and warned against sin. Ira was notorious for his drinking and short temper. He married four times, his third wife having sh ...
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Charlie Louvin
Charles Elzer Loudermilk (July 7, 1927 – January 26, 2011), known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955. Biography Born in Section, Alabama, Louvin was one of seven children and grew up working on the family farm in nearby Henagar. He started singing when he was eight years old. Louvin began singing professionally with his brother Ira as a teenager on local radio programs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The boys sang traditional and gospel music in the harmony style they had learned while performing in their church's choir. After Charlie left the act briefly in 1945 to serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II, the brothers moved first to Knoxville and later to Memphis, working as postal clerks by day, while making appearances in the evening. Another brief disbandment due to Charlie's service in the Korean War led to the br ...
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Louvin Brothers
The Louvin Brothers were an American musical duo composed of brothers Ira and Charlie Louvin (''né'' Loudermilk). The brothers are cousins to John D. Loudermilk, a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member. The brothers wrote and performed country, bluegrass, and gospel music. Ira played mandolin and generally sang lead vocal in the tenor range, while Charlie played rhythm guitar and offered supporting vocals in a lower pitch. They helped popularize the vocal technique of close harmony in country and country-rock. After becoming regulars at the Grand Ole Opry and scoring a string of hit singles in the late 1950s and early '60s, the Louvin Brothers broke up in 1963 due in large part to Charlie growing tired of Ira's addictions and reckless behavior. Ira died in a traffic accident in 1965. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, and Charlie died of cancer in 2011. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the Louvin Brothers number four on its list of the 20 Greatest ...
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Answer Song
An answer song, response song or answer record is a song (usually a recorded track) made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s to the 1950s. Answer songs were also popular in country music in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, sometimes as female responses to an original hit by a male artist or male responses to a hit by a female artist. The original " Hound Dog" song sung by Big Mama Thornton reached number 1 in 1953, and there were six answer songs in response; the most successful of these was "Bear Cat", by Rufus Thomas which reached number 3. That led to a successful copyright lawsuit for $35,000, which is said to have led Sam Phillips of Sun Records to sell Elvis Presley's recording contract to RCA. In ''Rock Eras: Interpretations of Music and Society'', Jim Curtis says that "the series of answer songs which were hits in 1960 ... indicates the dissociation of the singer from the ...
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Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean (brand), Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials, and his likeness and voice continue to be used in advertisements after his death. He became a national television personality starting on CBS in 1957. He rose to fame for his 1961 country music crossover hit into rock and roll with "Big Bad John" and his 1963 television series ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national exposure with his character, Rowlf the Dog, Rowlf. His acting career included appearing in the early seasons in the ''Daniel Boone (1964 TV series), Daniel Boone'' TV series as the sidekick of the famous frontiersman played by star Fess Parker. Later, he was on the big screen in a supporting role as billionaire Willard Whyte in the James Bond film ''Diamonds Are Forever (film), Diamonds Ar ...
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Big Bad John
"Big Bad John" is a country music, country song written and originally performed by Jimmy Dean. It was released in September 1961 and by the beginning of November it had gone to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song and its sequels tell a story typical of American folklore, reminiscent of Paul Bunyan or John Henry (folklore), John Henry. ''Big Bad John'' was also the title of a 1990 television movie starring Dean. Story The song is about a mysterious and quiet miner who earns the nickname Big John because of his height, weight, and muscular physique – ''"He stood six foot six and weighed 245".'' He apparently hails from New Orleans, where, with "a crashin' blow from a huge right hand", he allegedly killed a man in a fight over a Cajun Queen. One day, a support timber cracks at the mine where John works. The situati ...
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Discogs
Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''The New York Times'' as "Wikipedia-like". While the site was originally created with the goal of becoming the largest online database of electronic music, it now includes releases in all genres and on all formats. By 2015, it had a new goal: that of "cataloging every single piece of physical music ever created." As of 2025, its database contains over 18 million user-submitted album listings. History Discogs was started in 2000 by Kevin Lewandowski who worked as a programmer at Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo .... It wa ...
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1961 Songs
Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Finnair, Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the Captain (civil aviation), captain and First officer (civil aviation), first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terra ...
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1961 Singles
Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ** After the 1960 military coup, General Cemal Gür ...
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