In 1959, I was one year out of the Navy, working in the parts
department of the local Caterpillar dealer in Spriingfield, MO. I
really liked the work and the folks there were really good to me, just a
23 year old kid fresh from 4 years of Navy duty, instead of College I
went to Sea. Well, I had been working there almost a year when one day
my Mother's brother, Brother Bob Johnson, my Uncle and my Pastor at
Seminole Baptist Church, came into the
dealership and asked to talk to me outside on the street. I took a
break and we went out on the sidewalk and Brother Bob said, “Stanley
Edward, (only he and my Mother called me that) I want to start a home
for homeless boys and I need you to come and help me do it. I can’t pay
you anything, but your food and lodging, and the blessing of helping
these boys.” Well, I went in and gave my two weeks notice, and for the
nest two years and a half I helped Brother Bob, and the rest of the
folks who joined us, business owners, radio station owners, farmers,
preachers, retired couples who came and helped cook and clean and build.
And in the middle of that, Paul Harvey came to Springfield, Mo, to
visit with his friend, Ralph Foster, who owned KWTO, and do some fishing
together as they did from time to time. Ralph had let me do some dj
work on his station, and had known about the Ranch and had even
contributed to our work. During the fishing trip Ralph Foster told Paul
Harvey about our work. Paul came out and saw what we were building,
met some of the boys, and spent some time with Brother Bob and myself
getting the story of what we were trying to do. He told about our Ranch
on his radio show and it really helped.
I had gone around a 100 mile radius of the Ranch and got radio stations to let us have 30 minutes of radio time. I bought an old reel to reel tape recorder and we sat in the living room of the Ranch House and made radio shows. I played the guitar and sang some old Gospel songs, the boys would join me, and then Brother Bob would give a message about helping these boys. People would help support us as best they could. In those early years, many times we didn’t have food to feed everyone, for by this time we had taken almost 40 boys from terrible situations, and showed them that Someone loved them, unconditionally and forever. God provided the food, every time, maybe by some farmer bringing in a bushel of new potatoes from his garden, or a quarter side of beef he had just butchered, whatever it was, it was sufficient for the need we were experiencing. I learned a lot about living by Faith in those years.
At the two and a half year period, I was in the Ranch house and the phone rang. A man said, “Stan Hitchcock?” Yessir, this is he. “Stan, this is Don Law, I am the head of Nashville’s Columbia Records, and I would like you to come to Nashville and talk to me.” Well, those old radio shows had turned into a demo tape, although I didn’t know it at the time. Wan Hope, the chief engineer at KWTO had asked me to sing some songs, when I was getting ready to do my radio show, and he wanted to know if I sang any “country songs?” Well, shore, I said, and sang him a few, while he was setting up his recording equipment. Wan Hope sent the tape to Bob Tubert, in Nashville, who was heading up Si Siman’s publishing company, and Bob Tubert took it to Don Law telling him about this kid in the Ozarks that was working with homeless boys and singing his little songs to anyone who would listen.
Well, long story short, Don Law must have heard something in my voice that he liked because he signed me to Columbia Records, and I became the first country singer on the Epic Label, which Columbia had recently activated. For the next few years, 1962 to 1970, I was produced by the great Don Law, Frank Jones, Jerry Kennedy, Billy Sherrill and Glen Sutton. I loved the years at Epic Records and recorded 5 albums and numerous singles from 1962-1970. Later, when I moved to other labels, I was fortunate enough to work with more great producers such as, Tommy Allsup, Bill Rice, Buzz Cason and Johnny Morris. All of these talented music men made their imprint on my life and times, and I will be forever grateful for their direction. Along the way, I seemed to drift into television and ended up with “The Stan Hitchcock Show”, syndicated in broadcast tv stations all over the country, in the Saturday afternoon country music block of programming, that included, Porter, Buck Owens, Bill Anderson, The Wilburns, Jim and Jesse, Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins and others that came along from time to time. It was great years for country music, and television was taking it to new audiences. New writers were coming to town, new young producers, the greatest musicians the world will ever know, and the finest sound stages anywhere in the country. I have recorded in most of them at times, The Quonset Hut, later, the new Studio A, upstairs, the old RCA studio, Mercury Studios, Creative Workshop…and so many more. There was only one time, one session, that I did not enjoy…..
Goddard Lieberson, the President of Columbia Records in New York, had heard me sing at the Columbia Record Convention in Miami, Florida and decided I was a “Pop Singer”. Now where in the world he imagined a “Pop Singer” out of my young Ozark vocal chords I do not to this day, understand. But, never the less, Goddard ordered Billy Sherrill to bring me to New York to record me. By this time, I had been in many recording sessions, in Nashville, and I was very much at home in the studio. I walked into the big studio of Columbia Records in New York, and my recording experience took a turn for the worse. The engineer placed me in the vocalist spot, kinda in the middle of the room, with a music stand and a mike and sound baffles on each side. Just behind me, there were chairs for about 15 or 20 musicians and music stands in front of each. To the left was chairs and music stands for lead guitar, bass and rhythm guitar. In front of me was the piano. To the right was the isolated drum area, pretty well sealed off from the rest of us. Past the drum space was a space for the vocal group. So, I’m standing there, kinda nervous because it was a different environment, but I was cool. Then, as if on cue, the musicians started filing in. And that is the descriptive phrase, “filing in”. They came into the studio, not looking left of right, not speaking to one another, not even looking at me…I was invisible. I was expecting to make new musician friends, but I’ll be dang if I could get a single one of them to make eye contact. All in all, there were about 30 musicians in the room, all sitting in their places, music sheets before them, waiting for the command to play. This was so foreign to me….I wanted to get together around the piano, go over a rough listen to the song and do the head arrangements that we all did in Nashville. Again, to this point, I had not heard one word said by anyone. And not one person had spoken to me, welcomed me, or even seemed to know that I was there. Now, a music director entered the studio and took his place close to me in the center of the room. He had a sheaf of music sheets and he arranged the sheets on his music stand and then turned to me, for the first time, and said, “Ready?” Now Billy Sherrill had taken his place in the control room and he did not make his usual several appearances out in the studio, like he always did at home. I believe he was as intimidated by this bunch as I was. We spent the next three hours of recording four songs, playing by sight reading of all musicians and the vocal group, me singing from my lyric sheets, and when the last note was hit, the last word sung and the time was up…..every musician silently packed up their instruments, including the famous jazz guitar player that had been the lead player, they all picked up their stuff and filed out of the studio, not speaking, not smiling, no joking like between Ray Edenton, Pig Robbins, Hal Rugg, The Jordanaires and all the great A teamers in Nashville….the guys and gals that actually liked each other, hung out and enjoyed their music lives together. It was the coldest bunch of stuffed shirts and blouses that I have ever not enjoyed. As we were going back to the Hotel, I told Billy Sherrill, “If this is what being a “Pop Singer” is all about, then take me out of the running, I don’t like it, I don’t like these people…and I want to go home.”
I never heard from Goddard Lieberson again, except for the annual Christmas Card, for 8 years, like clock work, “Merry Christmas, from Goddard Lieberson and family” I believe he was a great music man, and he did discover Barbra Striesand and record “My Fair Lady” and Tony Bennett…..but, dang he didn’t know a hillbilly from a “Pop Singer” and I probably would not have enjoyed taking him Bass fishing, since I never saw him out of his Tuxedo and Cumberbund….I mean, he was a black tie man, be pretty hard to imagine him in a Bass Pro ball cap. So maybe Goddard just decided I was too rough around the edges…and in the middle to….and boy, I’m glad he figured it out.
OK, maybe I never heard from him again because he heard about the Alligator Incident at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, during that first year and the first time, when Columbia Records invited Country Music artists, Charley Walker, Tammy Wynette and Stan Hitchcock to the confab along with the Bobby Vintons, Tony Bennetts and Striesands…yes, the hillbillies did get a little out of hand….a terrible Alligator disturbance on the 23rd floor in the vicinity of Billy Sherrill’s room…when he actually found a 4 foot Alligator under the covers of his plush Eden Roc Hotel bed….which seemed to have been taken from the Alligator pit gardens that surrounded the Hotel….wrapped in a large Beach Towel and transported up the Service Elevator to Sherrill’s room where a Key had been filched and gave access for the Gator to be placed in a restful position, still secured in the towel and laying quietly, from the little tap on the head with the piece of driftwood, until Sherrill, who could be heard coming down the hall singing”Stand By Your Man”, and who entered the room pretty well lubricated, ok, just a few inches away from knee walking, jerked the covers back and the towel slipped down and the Gator’s mouth opened wide and he “HISSED”…did you know that Gators did that? Sherrill Levitated… completely sobered up in a split second, it was an amazing sight from those who were hiding in the bathroom peeking out the slight crack of the door. Not a good career move for an up and coming county singer, I would imagine.
I can still hear the hollering from the early risers going out to have their swim in the fancy pool behind the Hotel….”Alligators in the pool…Alligators in the pool…” as I was trying to go to sleep after a long night of hillbilly wandering and exploring….Yes, hissed just like a dang black snake back home when I used to mess with them…I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
I thought of this time, several years later, on another Record Label, with Tommy Allsup at the controls. I asked Curly Chalker to play “Shadow Of Your Smile”, and I sang along in my country voice and made a “Pop Song” bout as country as you could make it. I recorded it beause I loved the way Curly played it….and I just wanted folks to hear how country pickers played their music, and did it with friendship and class. Stan
I had gone around a 100 mile radius of the Ranch and got radio stations to let us have 30 minutes of radio time. I bought an old reel to reel tape recorder and we sat in the living room of the Ranch House and made radio shows. I played the guitar and sang some old Gospel songs, the boys would join me, and then Brother Bob would give a message about helping these boys. People would help support us as best they could. In those early years, many times we didn’t have food to feed everyone, for by this time we had taken almost 40 boys from terrible situations, and showed them that Someone loved them, unconditionally and forever. God provided the food, every time, maybe by some farmer bringing in a bushel of new potatoes from his garden, or a quarter side of beef he had just butchered, whatever it was, it was sufficient for the need we were experiencing. I learned a lot about living by Faith in those years.
At the two and a half year period, I was in the Ranch house and the phone rang. A man said, “Stan Hitchcock?” Yessir, this is he. “Stan, this is Don Law, I am the head of Nashville’s Columbia Records, and I would like you to come to Nashville and talk to me.” Well, those old radio shows had turned into a demo tape, although I didn’t know it at the time. Wan Hope, the chief engineer at KWTO had asked me to sing some songs, when I was getting ready to do my radio show, and he wanted to know if I sang any “country songs?” Well, shore, I said, and sang him a few, while he was setting up his recording equipment. Wan Hope sent the tape to Bob Tubert, in Nashville, who was heading up Si Siman’s publishing company, and Bob Tubert took it to Don Law telling him about this kid in the Ozarks that was working with homeless boys and singing his little songs to anyone who would listen.
Well, long story short, Don Law must have heard something in my voice that he liked because he signed me to Columbia Records, and I became the first country singer on the Epic Label, which Columbia had recently activated. For the next few years, 1962 to 1970, I was produced by the great Don Law, Frank Jones, Jerry Kennedy, Billy Sherrill and Glen Sutton. I loved the years at Epic Records and recorded 5 albums and numerous singles from 1962-1970. Later, when I moved to other labels, I was fortunate enough to work with more great producers such as, Tommy Allsup, Bill Rice, Buzz Cason and Johnny Morris. All of these talented music men made their imprint on my life and times, and I will be forever grateful for their direction. Along the way, I seemed to drift into television and ended up with “The Stan Hitchcock Show”, syndicated in broadcast tv stations all over the country, in the Saturday afternoon country music block of programming, that included, Porter, Buck Owens, Bill Anderson, The Wilburns, Jim and Jesse, Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins and others that came along from time to time. It was great years for country music, and television was taking it to new audiences. New writers were coming to town, new young producers, the greatest musicians the world will ever know, and the finest sound stages anywhere in the country. I have recorded in most of them at times, The Quonset Hut, later, the new Studio A, upstairs, the old RCA studio, Mercury Studios, Creative Workshop…and so many more. There was only one time, one session, that I did not enjoy…..
Goddard Lieberson, the President of Columbia Records in New York, had heard me sing at the Columbia Record Convention in Miami, Florida and decided I was a “Pop Singer”. Now where in the world he imagined a “Pop Singer” out of my young Ozark vocal chords I do not to this day, understand. But, never the less, Goddard ordered Billy Sherrill to bring me to New York to record me. By this time, I had been in many recording sessions, in Nashville, and I was very much at home in the studio. I walked into the big studio of Columbia Records in New York, and my recording experience took a turn for the worse. The engineer placed me in the vocalist spot, kinda in the middle of the room, with a music stand and a mike and sound baffles on each side. Just behind me, there were chairs for about 15 or 20 musicians and music stands in front of each. To the left was chairs and music stands for lead guitar, bass and rhythm guitar. In front of me was the piano. To the right was the isolated drum area, pretty well sealed off from the rest of us. Past the drum space was a space for the vocal group. So, I’m standing there, kinda nervous because it was a different environment, but I was cool. Then, as if on cue, the musicians started filing in. And that is the descriptive phrase, “filing in”. They came into the studio, not looking left of right, not speaking to one another, not even looking at me…I was invisible. I was expecting to make new musician friends, but I’ll be dang if I could get a single one of them to make eye contact. All in all, there were about 30 musicians in the room, all sitting in their places, music sheets before them, waiting for the command to play. This was so foreign to me….I wanted to get together around the piano, go over a rough listen to the song and do the head arrangements that we all did in Nashville. Again, to this point, I had not heard one word said by anyone. And not one person had spoken to me, welcomed me, or even seemed to know that I was there. Now, a music director entered the studio and took his place close to me in the center of the room. He had a sheaf of music sheets and he arranged the sheets on his music stand and then turned to me, for the first time, and said, “Ready?” Now Billy Sherrill had taken his place in the control room and he did not make his usual several appearances out in the studio, like he always did at home. I believe he was as intimidated by this bunch as I was. We spent the next three hours of recording four songs, playing by sight reading of all musicians and the vocal group, me singing from my lyric sheets, and when the last note was hit, the last word sung and the time was up…..every musician silently packed up their instruments, including the famous jazz guitar player that had been the lead player, they all picked up their stuff and filed out of the studio, not speaking, not smiling, no joking like between Ray Edenton, Pig Robbins, Hal Rugg, The Jordanaires and all the great A teamers in Nashville….the guys and gals that actually liked each other, hung out and enjoyed their music lives together. It was the coldest bunch of stuffed shirts and blouses that I have ever not enjoyed. As we were going back to the Hotel, I told Billy Sherrill, “If this is what being a “Pop Singer” is all about, then take me out of the running, I don’t like it, I don’t like these people…and I want to go home.”
I never heard from Goddard Lieberson again, except for the annual Christmas Card, for 8 years, like clock work, “Merry Christmas, from Goddard Lieberson and family” I believe he was a great music man, and he did discover Barbra Striesand and record “My Fair Lady” and Tony Bennett…..but, dang he didn’t know a hillbilly from a “Pop Singer” and I probably would not have enjoyed taking him Bass fishing, since I never saw him out of his Tuxedo and Cumberbund….I mean, he was a black tie man, be pretty hard to imagine him in a Bass Pro ball cap. So maybe Goddard just decided I was too rough around the edges…and in the middle to….and boy, I’m glad he figured it out.
OK, maybe I never heard from him again because he heard about the Alligator Incident at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, during that first year and the first time, when Columbia Records invited Country Music artists, Charley Walker, Tammy Wynette and Stan Hitchcock to the confab along with the Bobby Vintons, Tony Bennetts and Striesands…yes, the hillbillies did get a little out of hand….a terrible Alligator disturbance on the 23rd floor in the vicinity of Billy Sherrill’s room…when he actually found a 4 foot Alligator under the covers of his plush Eden Roc Hotel bed….which seemed to have been taken from the Alligator pit gardens that surrounded the Hotel….wrapped in a large Beach Towel and transported up the Service Elevator to Sherrill’s room where a Key had been filched and gave access for the Gator to be placed in a restful position, still secured in the towel and laying quietly, from the little tap on the head with the piece of driftwood, until Sherrill, who could be heard coming down the hall singing”Stand By Your Man”, and who entered the room pretty well lubricated, ok, just a few inches away from knee walking, jerked the covers back and the towel slipped down and the Gator’s mouth opened wide and he “HISSED”…did you know that Gators did that? Sherrill Levitated… completely sobered up in a split second, it was an amazing sight from those who were hiding in the bathroom peeking out the slight crack of the door. Not a good career move for an up and coming county singer, I would imagine.
I can still hear the hollering from the early risers going out to have their swim in the fancy pool behind the Hotel….”Alligators in the pool…Alligators in the pool…” as I was trying to go to sleep after a long night of hillbilly wandering and exploring….Yes, hissed just like a dang black snake back home when I used to mess with them…I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
I thought of this time, several years later, on another Record Label, with Tommy Allsup at the controls. I asked Curly Chalker to play “Shadow Of Your Smile”, and I sang along in my country voice and made a “Pop Song” bout as country as you could make it. I recorded it beause I loved the way Curly played it….and I just wanted folks to hear how country pickers played their music, and did it with friendship and class. Stan
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