On This Day in 1965, Buck Owens Hit No. 1 With an Album Inspired by a Gas Station Slogan

Growing up in Dust Bowl-era Arizona, Alvis Edgar “Buck” Owens Jr. taught himself to play guitar, mandolin, horns, and drums. His day job as a truck driver took him through Bakersfield, California. There, he fell in love with the town and its local music scene. With his sparkly Fender guitar, Owens kicked off a string of chart-topping hits in 1963. The first came when he recorded the Johnny Russell song “Act Naturally.” On this day in 1965, he and his band the Buckaroos hit #1 on Billboard’s Country charts with the album I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail.

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The Perfect Buck Owens Album?

Released in March 1965, I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail yielded Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ sixth No. 1 single in its title track. Owens came up with the idea after seeing an Esso gas station billboard with the company’s slogan, “Put a tiger in your tank.”

Recorded at Hollywood’s Capitol Records, the album featured Don Rich, Owens’ longtime friend and collaborator, on guitar and fiddle. It also Doyle Holly on bass, Tom Brumley on pedal steel guitar, and Willie Cantu on drums.

I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail captured the essence of the “Bakersfield sound.” Named for Owens’ adopted hometown, the sub-genre blended rock-and-roll with honky-tonk country. Although Wynn Steward pioneered the unique sound, artists like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were largely responsible for popularizing it.

[RELATED: Watch Buck Owens Perform His First No. 1 Single with His Best Friend and Longtime Bandmate]

The Bakersfield Sound Inspired These Country Music Heavyweights

Developing in protest to the sleeker, orchestra-heavy sound that dominated Nashville at the time, the “Bakersfield Sound” influenced a number of country music’s major players. Artists like Dwight Yoakum, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Marty Stuart, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Mavericks have all cited Buck Owens as an influence.

Notably, Yoakum met Owens in 1987 when he stopped by the latter’s Bakersfield radio station, KUZZ. That meeting spurred a relationship that was “a combination of parent, sibling and peer,” Yoakam said.

The pair’s 1988 duet “Streets of Bakersfield” gave Owens his first #1 song in more than a decade. After the “Act Naturally” crooner’s death in 2006 at age 76, Yoakum paid tribute to his mentor with the 2007 album Dwight Sings Buck.

“I realized that after his death we get to be together again every night onstage and together again on this album,” the two-time Grammy winner said.

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