Everything you love about country music? You can likely thank Clyde Julian “Red” Foley, who played a crucial role in shaping the genre post-World War II. On this day (Jan. 17) in 1945, Red Foley became the first performer to record in Nashville. The Kentucky native recorded “Tennessee Saturday Night”, “Blues in My Heart”, and “Tennessee Border” at WSM-AM’s Studio B.
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More About Red Foley, Nashville’s First Country Star
Red Foley began delivering impromptu concerts at his father’s general store in Berea, Kentucky, by age 9. He played French harp, piano, banjo, trombone, harmonica, and guitar.
After graduating high school, he enrolled at Kentucky’s Georgetown College, planning to further his music studies. However, his higher education was short-lived. In 1931, a talent scout for the Chicago radio station WLS (AM) recruited Foley to join the house band on National Barn Dance.
After working the radio network circuit for a few years, Red Foley eventually inked a lifetime contract with Decca Records in 1941. He scored his first hit with “Old Shep,” a song he had written seven years earlier about his own German shepherd, Hoover.
His No. 1 hits included “Sugarfoot Rag”, “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”, and “Birmingham Bounce”, which spent 14 weeks atop the charts. Also finding success on the silver screen, Foley hosted The Prince Albert Show, NBC Radio’s segment of the Grand Ole Opry, for eight years.
He Discovered This Teen Star
Getting her start at 12 years old, Brenda Lee remains one of the best-selling American artists of the 20th century. And without Red Foley, we may never have heard Lee’s holiday staple “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
With the help of a DJ, 11-year-old Lee (born Brenda Mae Tarpley) met Foley when he was in Augusta, Georgia, for his popular TV program Ozark Jubilee. “Mr. Country Music” was so impressed that he offered her a full-time spot in the cast. Soon, the Tarpley family had moved to Springfield, Missouri, from their home in Georgia. Brenda Lee signed with Decca Records in 1956.
Featured image by Bob Grannis/Getty Images
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