Listen to this man. Seven years of college, you know. Trying to reason with 2020 and, now, 2022.

Monday, September 14, 2020

Music Deaths: Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers

 HAROLD REID, 80

Died 24 April 2020

Co-founder of country band Statler Brothers.  He was the one with the really deep voice.

In 1964, they were hired by Johnny Cash to open his show.  Columbia Records, also Cash's record company, gave them a contract, but didn't have much success until the 45 "The Ballad of Billy Christian" was released.  It didn't have much impact until deejays turned it over and played side B, which was "Flowers On the Wall," which as you know became a huge hit.

I remember seeing a show by Johnny Cash and the Statler Brothers in Chicago back in 1967 and remember the Statler Brothers saying that they got paid weekly by Johnny Cash, "Very Weakly."

The vocals this band could do, especially with that bass voice of Harold (and his humor), made them stars in country music and, besides "Flowers On the Wall," which became a #4 hit on the pop charts in 1965, they also had two other pop hits on the pop charts.  They put out fifty albums over 40 years.


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