2 November 2005

 This is a weekly newsletter about Faron Young and my progress toward publication of “Tell It Like It Is: A Biography of Faron Young.” A university press is currently reviewing the book manuscript.

FARON FIFTY-THREE YEARS AGO: Faron recorded “Goin’ Steady” on October 12, 1952, a month before his induction into the Army. He’d written the song while on the road touring with Hank Snow. He used the melody of Claude King’s “She Knows Why,” and he received advice on the lyrics from his manager, Hubert Long, and Snow’s frontman, Hillous Butram. The song went into the Central Songs catalog, a publishing company co-owned by Faron’s record producer, Ken Nelson. “Goin’ Steady” was Faron’s fourth release on Capitol Records and his first to chart. It debuted on January 10, shortly before Faron completed infantry basic training at Fort Jackson, and eventually hit the number two spot on Billboard. Its popularity was part of the reason Fort Jackson’s Special Services sent Faron to New York City to compete on “Talent Patrol,” a network television show that held an annual contest for members of the Armed Forces. Faron won.

Peter Trenholm from Nova Scotia writes, “In the 1980’s I went to a concert in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Faron was the opening act for Merle Haggard. Faron was absolutely awesome. He had a little girl come from the audience around 6-7 years old to help him sing ‘This little girl of mine.’ He was wonderful at relating to the audience & his portion of the show was top notch.” Merle Haggard did a lot of singing, which was great, but he never said one word to the audience.

Dr. Keith Jenkins, who calls Faron his all-time favorite Country artist, writes, “I saw Faron at a Baltimore area high school in 1975. He did two fantastic shows and gave my brothers and my best friend and me a tour of the bus, autographed our album covers and pictures, posed for pictures with us and talked to us between shows like he wasn’t tired and had nothing more important to do than gab with his fans.”
I like this quote by Ken Maynard from Canada: “He put a bullet in his head & an ache in the heart of all of his fans which never can be healed.”

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