Photo by Alan Messer
Bobby Bare, country singer and songwriter, is 86 years ago today.
Just before Bare was drafted into the Army, he wrote a song called "The All American Boy" and did a demo for his friend, Bill Parsons, to learn and record. Instead of using the version Bill Parsons did later, the record company, Fraternity Records, decided to use the original demo recorded by Bare.
The record reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, but they made an error: the singles' labels all credited the artist as being "Bill Parsons." The same track, with the same billing error, peaked at #22 in the UK Singles Chart in April, 1959.
Bare's big break in country music came when RCA Records' Chet Atkins signed him. The first song he released on the label was "Shame On Me" in 1962. His second RCA release, "Detroit City," reached #6 on the Country and #16 on the Hot 100 chart.
Then a surge of hits followed, including "500 Miles Away from Home" (based on a traditional folk ballad written by Hedy West as "500 Miles") and Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds."
Bare moved to Mercury Records in 1970 and immediately scored a #3 hit with "How I Got To Memphis" and had two Top 10 hits from early Kris Kristofferson compositions, "Come Sundown" (1971) and "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends" (1971).
After two years at Mercury, Bare returned to RCA Records in 1973 and scored with Billy Joe Shaver's "Ride Me Down Easy," which nearly made the Top 10.
In 1979, Bare started off Rosanne Cash's career in a big way by singing a duet with her called, "No Memories Hangin' Round," which went to Top 20 for them.
In 1980, he scored a near Top 10 with "Numbers," which came from his album "Down and Dirty" where Bare started to experiment with Southern rock and continued this with his next album, "Drunk and Crazy."
In 1981, Bare released an album entitled "As Is" which was produced by Rodney Crowell and returned Bare back to his country roots with songs like "New Cut Road." Bare was still doing well on the record charts into the early 1980s.
From 1983 to 1988, Bare hosted Bobby Bare and Friends on The Nashville Network which featured him interviewing songwriters who sang their hit songs on the show. In 1998, he formed the band, Old Dogs, with his friends Jerry Reed, Mel Tillis and Waylon Jennings.
In 2005, he recorded a new album after over 20 years, called The Moon Was Blue, produced by his son, Bobby Bare, Jr., who is also a musician. Bare was a 2013 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame with Cowboy Jack Clement and Kenny Rogers.
In nearly 50 years of making music, he has made many firsts in country music. Bare is credited for introducing Waylon Jennings to RCA.
He is also one of the first to record from many well- known song writers such as Jack Clement, Harlan Howard, Billy Joe Shaver, Mickey Newbury, Tom T. Hall, Shel Silverstein, Baxter Taylor and Kris Kristofferson.