Herbert Raymond Pillow (July 4, 1937 – March 26, 2023) was an American

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 p ...

singer,

music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...

, and

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (or A&R for short) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for scouting, financing, and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters. It also acts as a l ...

(A&R) representative. In his career, he had 18 singles on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' country songs chart, with his highest-peaking song being the number 9 single " I'll Take the Dog", a duet with

Jean Shepard Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard (November 21, 1933 – September 25, 2016), was an American country singer who was considered one of the genre's first significant female artists. Her commercial success ran from the 1950s to the 1970s while also be ...

. After charting for the last time in 1981, Pillow founded Sycamore Records with Larry McFadden, and later worked in the A&R department of

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. Pillow continued to perform as a member of the Grand Ole Opry and on popular classic country television programs such as ''Country's Family Reunion'', which airs regularly in the United States on

RFD-TV RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United St ...

network. Through his record label, Pillow released two albums, ''Ray Pillow Live'' and ''Country Class'', the latter of which contained new material. Pillow retired in 2018. Pillow was a member of the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

since 1966. Pillow died in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, on March 26, 2023, at the age of 85.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* (not updated since 2010. Jim Glaser is listed as Webmaster; Glaser died in 2019.) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pillow, Ray 1937 births 2023 deaths American country singer-songwriters Grand Ole Opry members American male singer-songwriters ABC Records artists Capitol Records artists Dot Records artists MCA Records artists Singer-songwriters from Virginia Musicians from Lynchburg, Virginia