Tony Booth (born February 7, 1943) is 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 who participated in

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' country music chart. He pioneered what came ...

' " Bakersfield sound" revolution.

Early years

As a boy, Booth showed his talent by winning a contest in

New Port Richey, Florida New Port Richey is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was counted at 16,728 in the 2020 census. History By ...

, for playing guitar at age 14. After high school, he attended the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

with the intent of becoming a schoolteacher. But he decided to give music a try, and began his music career with the Mel Savage Band. Before long, he was touring with Jimmy Snyder. Booth's first single, "Wishful Thinkin'" (backed with "I Think I Can") and album, ''Country '67'' was released under the stage name "Johnny Booth" by

Universal City Records Uni Records (short for the label's legal name Universal City Records and rendered as UNI) was a record label owned by MCA Inc. The brand, which long featured a distinctive UNi logo, was established in 1966 by MCA executive Ned Tanen and develop ...

in 1967. It featured a cover of Engelbert Humperdinck's " There Goes My Everything", a version of which had been released months earlier by

Ray Price Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone is regarded as among the best male voices of country music, and his innovations, such as prope ...

, one of Booth's longtime influences. The album, produced by

Cliffie Stone Clifford Gilpin Snyder (March 1, 1917 – January 17, 1998), professionally Cliffie Stone, was an American country singer, musician, record producer, music publisher, and radio and TV personality who was pivotal in the development of Californi ...

, retains the vestigal sound of

Rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

that

was moving away from at that time, ironically toward the softer sound then being pushed by artists such as

Price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a ph ...

. When his first album did not yield a chart position, Booth formed a band called Modern Country in 1968 and performed for a time in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

before moving to Los Angeles, California. The band, which renamed itself the Tony Booth Band, became the house band at L.A.'s Palomino Club. He cut a single with K-Ark Records, "Big Lonely World" (backed with "It's Alright") but it also had no chart success.

Country success

That changed in 1970 when his first single for

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in country music, he was a central pioneer of the Bakersfield ...

's song about interracial love, "

Irma Jackson "Irma Jackson" is a song by Bakersfield, California-based outlaw country artist Merle Haggard, released on his 1972 album '' Let Me Tell You About a Song''. The song, which was about the then-controversial topic of an interracial romance, was actu ...

" (backed with Booth's own "One Too Many Times") reached the charts. His band also won an

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller (songwriter), Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris ...

award, which they would take home for three consecutive years. Tony also received the Most Promising Male Vocalist of The Year from the Academy of Country Music in 1972. An album soon followed, ''On The Right Track'', produced by Dusty Rhodes, and in 1971 Booth won the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * IATA airport code for Arica Airport in Amazonas Department, Colombia Computing ...

award for Most Promising Male Vocalist. He signed with

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 ...

and became one of several artists to record under

. His first single, "Cinderella", went midway up the charts. Booth released two albums a year for Capitol between 1972 and 1974. The first was ''The Key's in the Mailbox'' which included three hit singles. The title track reached No. 1 on Cash Box, making it his best-ranked and best-known song. The last single from the album made it to No. 13, and "Lonesome 7-7203" from his next album peaked right behind at No. 6. Over the next three albums, Booth produced five more singles which all charted. "When a Man Loves a Woman (The Way That I Love You)" made it to No. 19, and the next four all made the Top 50 including a cover of

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

's hit "Secret Love." He was also nominated for the

Male Vocalist of the Year award in 1973. After two singles failed to chart, Booth's cover of

Jim Croce James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American Folk music, folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of o ...

's hit ''Workin' At The Car Wash Blues'', made it to No. 22 and the album of the same name won an

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

award in 1974. Up to that album, his recordings for Capitol were largely penned by Buck Owens, but by that time Owens was retreating from the music scene following the death of his close friend

Don Rich Donald Eugene Ulrich (August 15, 1941 – July 17, 1974), best known by the stage name Don Rich, was an American country musician who helped develop the Bakersfield sound in the early 1960s. He was a noted guitarist and fiddler, and a ...

and the net for Booth's material was cast wider.

Later years

Booth left Capitol in 1975 after three more singles. He was picked up by

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...

in 1976, and unsurprisingly left the Bakersfield sound behind. The soaring strings didn't impress the charts, although his 1977 single "Letting Go" (backed somewhat ironically with "Nothing Seems To Work Anymore") just barely made the Top 100. He went on to tour in

Gene Watson Gary Gene Watson (born October 11, 1943) is an American country music singer. He is most famous for his 1975 hit " Love in the Hot Afternoon", his 1981 number-one hit " Fourteen Carat Mind", and his signature 1979 song " Farewell Party". Wats ...

's band and played bass and sang backup on many of his mid-1980s albums, and performed the song "Still on the Bottle" for the movie ''Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will?'' (1990). Booth currently lives in

Alvin, Texas Alvin is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area and Brazoria County. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city population was 27,098. Alvin's claim to fame is Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan ...

, with his wife and family, and appears frequently in the band at the Alvin Opry with his brother

Larry Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer * Larry Boo ...

. Booth has also resumed touring on his own again, playing mostly in southern states such as

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Booth signed with Heart of Texas Records in 2006 and has released 10 CDs, as well as two albums with Curtis Potter and Darrell McCall as "The Survivors," traveling all over Texas and Nashville. Booth recently traveled to Sweden, Scotland and London with the Heart of Texas Road Show. During the summer of 2016, Booth traveled to Japan for the "COUNTRY GOLD 2016" with Bucky Covington. Each year, the Heart of Texas Roadshow takes their entertainment on the water for a classic country cruise.

Awards

*1970 –

Best Non-Touring Band *1971 –

Most Promising Male Vocalist *1972 –

Best Non-Touring Band *1974 –

Award for ''Workin' At The Car Wash Blues''

Discography

Albums

Singles

Sources

Century Of Country

External links

Tony Booth's Official WebsiteThe Alvin Opry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Tony American country singer-songwriters 1943 births Living people Musicians from Tampa, Florida People from Alvin, Texas Country musicians from Texas Country musicians from Florida Singer-songwriters from Texas Singer-songwriters from Florida