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'Sweet Dreams' Songwriter, Artist Don Gibson Dies
By: PETER COOPER Staff Writer
“He sang very well, and I go back to the great songs he wrote,” said fellow Hall of Famer Eddy Arnold. “Golly Bill, those were monsters that he wrote.” Born Donald Eugene Gibson, the singer credited Arnold and Red Foley as two of his prime vocal influences, and his sonorous, uptown singing style echoed those two greats. In the 1940s, he began singing on WHOS, a radio station in his native Shelby, N.C., with a band called the Sons of the Soil. “That was the first I ever heard of Don,” said another Hall of Fame member, Earl Scruggs, who hailed from the Shelby area. “This announcer would say, 'From the heart of Shelby, North Carolina, comes Don Gibson and the Sons of the Soil.' You know, he played one of the best rhythm guitars I believe I've ever heard. He could hit a lick or two on the guitar, and you could tell right away it was him.” But, while his singing and his guitar work were quite distinctive, it was Mr. Gibson's songwriting that would make his first indelible mark on country music. He recorded for major labels beginning in 1949, but a self-penned 1955 composition called Sweet Dreams was his breakthrough effort. Sweet Dreams was a hit for its author, for Faron Young, for Emmylou Harris and, most famously, for Patsy Cline. That song brought Mr. Gibson — then a regular at Knoxville's WNOX — to the attention of the Nashville-based country music industry and earned him a songwriting deal with Acuff-Rose publishing. In 1957, Mr. Gibson was living in an East Tennessee trailer park when, according to legend, he wrote Oh Lonesome Me and I Can't Stop Loving You in one afternoon. Both songs are now considered standards of American popular music, with I Can't Stop Loving You having sold tens of millions of records from versions by artists including Gibson, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles. Produced by Chet Atkins, Mr. Gibson's 1957 recording of Oh Lonesome Me for RCA was a landmark that helped usher in what became known as the "Nashville Sound." In 1958, it became Mr. Gibson's first No. 1 single. “In some ways, he invented the Nashville Sound,” said Charles K. Wolfe, a music historian at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. “A spare sound with piano, drums, guitar, no fiddle and no steel … that's basically Don Gibson's idea.” In the wake of Oh Lonesome Me, Mr. Gibson became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. A string of hits followed, including I Can't Stop Loving You, Blue Blue Day, Who Cares and Sea of Heartbreak. But Mr. Gibson derailed his own career with drug and alcohol problems, troubles that he would later acknowledge in interviews. “I wouldn't have known if I had been crowned king of England,” he told Associated Press writer Joe Hawkins. In a record company biography, Mr. Gibson said he became hooked on pills that a doctor prescribed for weight control. “I got hooked on them because they were good for curing hangovers, too," he said. “The pills, of course, were speed. And hangovers are something you get a lot of when you're playing one-nighters and you're a big-shot entertainer and everyone's buying you drinks.” Mr. Gibson became so strung out, as he put it, and so disenchanted with the life of a recording musician that he returned to Shelby in 1967. There he met Bobbi Patterson, who would become his second wife. He credited her with helping him clean up his life. Sober and remarried, Mr. Gibson scored several duet hits with Dottie West, and he topped the charts for the last time in 1972 with solo hit Woman (Sensuous Woman) on Hickory Records. A year later, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He continued to record, and the modest success of 1980's Love Fires meant he scored Top 100 hits in four straight decades. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Gibson stood outside the spotlight, making some Opry appearances but never attempting to reassert himself as a top-draw artist. By then, though, his legacy was intact. In 2001, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. “He was a great writer, and no one could sing those songs he wrote like he could,” said "Queen of Country Music" Kitty Wells. “I think he was one of the best singers in the business.” Had Mr. Gibson only been a singer, his work would be well-remembered. Had he only been a songwriter, he would have ranked among Nashville's most substantial song scribes. Had he only been a recording artist, he would have merited great praise from his own idols, including Eddy Arnold. The title of Mr. Gibson's 1960 song (I'd Be) A Legend In My Time rings true enough, but his legend should be secure for decades hence. “He made a mark,” Arnold said. “Oh yes, those records will last.” Mr. Gibson is survived by his wife, Bobbi. He will be buried at a family plot in his native Shelby, N.C., and a Nashville memorial service is being planned. |
Originally Published In The Tennessean On November 18, 2003
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