Joe Dowell

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Joseph Harry "Joe" Dowell (* 23. January 1940 in Bloomington , Indiana ; † 4. February 2016 in Bloomington , Illinois ) was an American pop - and folk - singer-songwriter ; later he worked as advertising - and PR - manager . He became known in 1961 for his number one hit Wooden Heart (Must i because) .

Life

Joe Dowell was born in Bloomington, Indiana , in 1940 , but his family moved to Bloomington, Illinois with him as an infant . He started playing guitar and writing songs at the age of 13 . When he was in the ninth grade, he made his first appearance in a talent search with the evergreen Unchained Melody . He was studying communication science at the University of Illinois when Elvis Presley recorded the song Wooden Heart for the film G. I. Blues ( Coffee Europe ) in 1960 , an adaptation of the German folk song Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städttele . Wooden Heart was released as a single in Germany in 1960 and reached number two on the charts in November 1960. It was released in Great Britain in the spring of 1961 and even rose to number one on the British charts in March . While Elvis Presley's version was successful in Europe, it wasn't released as a single in the US - the main reason being that Elvis' single I Feel So Bad was in the US charts at the time.

Joe Dowell - Wooden Heart

Shelby Singleton Jr. was a Nashville music producer at the time ; Joe Dowell had an appointment with him to make his first recordings in the studio. Singleton had seen the Elvis film G. I. Blues in the cinema the day before and was already familiar with the Wooden Heart versions by Elvis and Gus Backus . He saw the potential of the song and had Dowell record the song. The young man came to his recording session early on May 26, 1961 at 11 a.m. and had to learn the German, foreign-language part of the text within three hours. He recalled, “A man named Eddie Wilson came into the office to teach me what to sing. I had no idea what I was singing, I just learned the lyrics phonetically. ”During the recording, Jerry Kennedy played bass in the style of the tuba from Elvis' original; Ray Stevens coaxed notes from the organ that should come close to the accordion of Presley's version.

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Wooden Heart (Must I Because)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 06/24/1961 (16 weeks)
The Bridge of Love
  US 50 10/14/1961 (7 weeks)
Little Red Rented Rowboat
  US 23 06/23/1962 (9 weeks)

Dowell intake of Wooden Heart was within three days on the Mercury Records - Label Smash published. Dowell was sent on a four-week promotional tour. On June 26, his single went into the Billboard charts and on August 28, 1961, it took the top spot from Bobby Lewis . Two more singles with placements in the top 50 prevented him from becoming a real one-hit wonder .

Dowell's voice was very similar to Jim Reeves' . He considered himself a singer-songwriter, but his record company only released his first album with covers of current hits like Gene McDaniel 's ' A Hundred Pounds of Clay or Bobby Rydell's Swingin' School . However, some singles also featured songs by Dowell. For the second - and final - long-playing record on Smash Records , the title was program: German American Hits included titles such as Lili Marleen , Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart , Morgen and The Happy Wanderer ("My father was a wanderer"). Due to the differences over the song material Dowell left Smash Records after two years and recorded another LP in 1963 for Don McCathran Records , the label of a college professor of the same name from Pennsylvania. By Joe Dowell Sings Folk Songs , however, only about 500 copies were pressed - a real rarity.

Dowell founded a radio advertising production company and made a career as a spokesman for various US banks and financial institutions. In 2002 he recorded the album Of Earth and Heaven with ten songs. Two years later, Bear Family Records released a retrospective of 32 titles from the early 1960s, including the three hits. The following year, Dowell performed at the ninth Caravan of Stars in Jackson , Tennessee . Well-known artists of the 1960s such as Johnny Tillotson , Andy Kim and Billy Joe Royal were there .

literature

  • Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits . 3 rd edition. Billboard Publications, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 , p. 95, online at www.joedowell.com

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joe Dowell, had No. 1 hit with 'Wooden Heart, "dies at 76
  2. ↑ a b "Mr. Music “ Jerry Osbornes, January 17, 2005, accessed June 14, 2007
  3. ↑ According to SWR Legends of Pop , it was Armin Edgar Schaible from Ludwigsburg who had been a country singer in Nashville since 1960.
  4. ↑ “A man named Eddie Wilson came in to the office to teach me to sing 'Must idenn, muss i denn.' I didn't have any idea what I was singing; I learned the song. " Quoted from: Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits . 3 rd edition. Billboard Publications, New York 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9
  5. ↑ Charts US
  6. ↑ Joe Dowell Sings Folk Songs in the All Music Guide
  7. ↑ Audio samples on Dowell's website
personal data
SURNAME Dowell, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dowell, Joseph Harry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and advertising manager
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Bloomington , Indiana , United States
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 2016
Place of death Bloomington , Illinois , United States