On this day (November 2) in 1926, Charles Levi Walker was born in the tiny North Texas town of Copeville. Best known for the Harlan Howard-penned hit “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down”, Charlie Walker got his start as a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Radio Network during World War II. A longtime Grand Ole Opry staple, he was inducted into the Country Radio DJ Hall of Fame in 1981.
On September 12, 2008, Charlie Walker died of colon cancer at age 81 in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Today, we’re highlighting his life and career on what would have been his 100th birthday.
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Charlie Walker Was a Highly Influential Country Music DJ
With his father’s encouragement, Charlie Walker began performing in his teens. In 1943, he signed on as a singer and guitarist with Bill Boyd’s Cowboy Ramblers, but enlisted in the U.S. Army the following year.
His military service didn’t mean the end of his country music career, however. While serving in Tokyo, Japan, as part of the Eighth Army Signal Corps occupation forces, Walker worked as a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Network.
After the war ended, he settled in San Antonio, Texas, landing a job as a DJ at the local radio outlet KMAC. He spent the next decade at the station developing his character — “ol’ polk salad, cotton-picking, boll-pulling, corn-shucking, snuff-dipping Charlie Walker.”
Walker soon solidified his place among the nation’s Top 10 country-music disc jockeys.
His Singing Career
While furthering his broadcasting career, Charlie Walker signed with Imperial Records in 1952. After cutting several unsuccessful singles, the label released him the following year.
However, Walker landed at Decca Records, where he reached the national country charts with “Only You, Only You” in late 1955. He never quite matched that success again at Decca before eventually landing at Columbia Records in mid-1958.
There, Walker found his biggest success with “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down”, penned by a then-unknown Harlan Howard.
Both Ray Price and Ernest Tubb had also wanted the song, but it ultimately went to Walker “because he needed a hit.”
The Texan’s version reached number two on the weekly country and western chart and helped launch Howard’s prolific composing career.
Walker reached the Top 10 again in 1965 with the novelty song “Don’t Squeeze My Sharmon,” inspired by toilet paper brand Charmin’s commercial catchphrase.
After spending several years headlining the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas, Walker earned membership to the Grand Ole Opry. He remained a popular performer until his colon cancer diagnosis forced him to retire shortly before his death in 2008.
[RELATED: 4 Songs Written by Harlan Howard That Became Country Classics]
Walker also portrayed ill-fated country singer Cowboy Copas in the 1985 Patsy Cline biopic Sweet Dreams.
Featured image By John G. White/The Denver Post via Getty Images
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