There’s an eternal link between country music and trucks. Some examples include Buck Owens’ “Truck-Drivin’ Man” (1956) and Luke Bryan’s 2007 single “We Rode in Trucks.” On this day (Jan. 18) in 1966, country music singer-songwriter Red Sovine topped the Hot Country Singles chart with “Giddyup Go,” a classic “truck-driving” country song with an emotional twist.
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About Red Sovine
Born July 7, 1917 in Charleston, West Virginia, Woodrow Wilson “Red” Sovine learned to play guitar at age 12. He cut his teeth performing for imaginary audiences in the family barn.
In the mid-30s, he and childhood friend Johnnie Bailes began playing for real crowds. The two billed themselves as Smiley and Red, the Singing Sailors. Unable to ascend past church socials and dances, however, Bailes eventually left to perform with his siblings as the Bailes Brothers.
Sovine married wife Norma Searls, and singing took a backseat to his supervisor job at a Charleston hosiery factory. Forming his own band, the Echo Valley boys, the West Virginia native soon moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, gaining exposure on the storied Louisiana Hayride radio program. With the help of co-star Hank Williams, Sovine landed a contract with MGM Records in 1949. His first No. 1 hit came six years later when he joined Webb Pierce on a cover of George Jones’ “Why Baby Why.” (By this point, he had moved over to Decca Records.)
Finding His Niche
Co-written with Tommy Hill, “Giddyup Go” was the title track to Red Sovine’s seventh studio album, released in 1966. The spoken-word recitation introduces us to a long-distance truck driver whose demanding profession had left him estranged from his wife and son. By the end of the song, our narrator has reunited with his long-lost child—who, as it turns out, has followed in his father’s footsteps, driving the same lonely stretches of highway.
Spending six weeks atop the Hot Country Singles chart, “Giddyup Go” gave Sovine his first chart appearance in nine years. Additionally, it established the artist as a premiere name among the growing truck-driving country subgenre. His other four wheeled-inspired hits included “Phantom 309,” “Little Joe,” and “Teddy Bear.”
On April 4, 1980, Red Sovine suffered a heart attack while driving in southern Nashville. The cardiac incident caused him to run a red light and collide with another vehicle. Sovine died shortly after arriving at St. Thomas Hospital. He was 62 years old.
Featured image by Gems/Redferns
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