Conway Twitty - Danny Boy '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. I Need Your Lovin
02. Just in Time
03. I Vibrate (from My Head to My Feet)
04. Its Only Make Believe
05. The Story of My Love
06. Danny Boy
07. Hey Little Lucy (Dontcha Put No Lipstick on)
08. Mona Lisa
09. Is a Bluebird Blue?
10. Lonely Blue Boy
11. Shes Mine
12. What A Dream
13. What Am I Living For?
14. Whole Lotta Shakin Going On
15. Cest Si Bon (Its So Good)
16. Portrait of a Fool
17. Sweet Sorrow
18. The Next Kiss (Is the Last Goodbye)
19. The Pickup


 Read MoreThe son of a riverboat captain, Twitty (born Harold Lloyd Jenkins,
September 1, 1933; died June 5, 1993) was born in Mississippi and raised in
Helena, AR, where he learned to love not only country, but also blues and
gospel. When he was ten years old, he joined his first group, the Phillips
Country Ramblers, who occasionally performed on local radio. Despite his
interest in music, he originally planned to become a professional baseball
player. Jenkins was talented enough to be offered a contract by the Philadelphia
Phillies, but he was unable to join the team, since he was drafted into the Army
during the Korean War. While he was serving in the Far East, he sang with a
country band called the Cimarrons. Returning to America in 1956, Jenkins still
had an open offer to join the Phillies, yet he decided to pursue a musical
career after he heard Elvis Presley.

With dreams of recording for Sun Records, Jenkins headed to Memphis, where Sam
Phillips did indeed sign him to a recording contract, but none of the tracks he
cut were ever released; Jenkins biggest contribution to the label was writing
Rock House, a minor hit for Roy Orbison. Leaving Sun in late 1956, he set out on
a rockabilly package tour, during which he invented the stage name of Conway
Twitty by combining the names of an Arkansas and Texas city, respectively. At
the beginning of 1957, he signed to Mercury Records, where he released a handful
of singles that didnt make much of an impact, though I Need Your Lovin scraped
the very bottom of the pop charts. In 1958, he moved to MGM Records, where he
finally achieved success with Its Only Make Believe, a song he had written with
Jack Nance. Recorded with vocal support by Presleys back group, the Jordanaires,
Its Only Make Believe became a major hit, spending two weeks at number one and
going gold. Over the course of 1959 and 1960, Twitty released a number of
singles, the most popular of which were the Top Ten Danny Boy and Lonely Blue
Boy, and appeared in the B-movies Sex Kittens Go to College, Platinum High
School, and College Confidential.

Twittys rock & roll fame arrived suddenly and it went away just as quickly. By
the beginning of 1961, his singles had stopped entering the Top 40.
Nevertheless, he continued to tour, but soon MGM dropped him from their roster.
Signing with ABC-Paramount, he began to add more country songs to his
repertoire, yet he was still primarily recording pop material. Once Ray Price
took Twittys Walk Me to the Door to the country Top Ten, Conway decided he
wanted to become a country singer, but he didnt actively pursue that avenue
until 1965, when he walked out in the middle of a concert at a New Jersey
nightclub. By the end of 1965, Twitty had begun a collaboration with record
producer Owen Bradley, one of the cornerstones of the Nashville sound, and had
signed to Decca Records. In the spring of the following year, he released his
first country single, Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart, which peaked at
number 18. For the next two years, he had a steady stream of four minor hits,
finally breaking into the Top Ten with The Image of Me in the spring of 1968,
followed a few months later by his first number one hit, Next in Line. For the
next four years, he had a string of 12 Top Five singles for Decca, eight of
which -- including I Love You More Today, To See My Angel Cry, Hello Darlin,
Fifteen Years Ago, and How Much More She Can Stand -- were number one hits.

In late 1970, he began a professional relationship with Loretta Lynn, releasing
their first duet, After the Fire Is Gone, early in 1971. The record became the
first of five straight number one country hits, which also included Lead Me On,
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man, As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone, and Feelins.
Over the course of the decade, Twitty and Lynn continued to work together,
releasing one album a year and racking up a total of 14 Top Ten hits; they also
won four Duo of the Year awards from the Country Music Association, three Vocal
Group of the Year honors from the Academy of Country Music, and one Grammy for
Best Vocal Performance by a Group (After the Fire Is Gone).

Twittys solo career continued to thrive alongside his duets with Lynn. In 1973,
Decca became absorbed by MCA Records, and all of his new records were released
on MCA. The changeover in labels happened to coincide with an increased
suggestiveness in much of his material, including the major hit single Youve
Never Been This Far Before, which spent three weeks at number one during the
summer of 1973, despite being banned by several radio stations. Not all of his
songs were as explicitly sexual, yet they all had an adult theme and their
layered, string-laden production was designed for more mature audience, who
bought Twitty records in droves. Until 1983, he had a remarkably consistent
string of Top Ten singles for Decca, most of which hit number one. Among his
best-known hits from this era were I See the Want To in Your Eyes, Linda in My
Mind, Touch the Hand, After All the Good Is Gone, Ive Already Loved You in My
Mind, Happy Birthday Darlin, Tight Fittin Jeans, and Red Neckin Love Makin
Night. As he continued to rule the charts, Twitty expanded into other business
ventures, including banking, property, a booking agency, and ultimately, a theme
park called Twitty City. The size of his international popularity was confirmed
when he re-recorded Hello Darlin in Russian for a joint American/Soviet space
mission.

In late 1981, he briefly moved to Elektra, where he released several hit
singles, many of which were pop covers like the Pointer Sisters Slow Hand and
Bette Midlers The Rose. Twitty signed with Warner Bros. in 1983, where he had a
string of hits over the next three years. Again, he covered several pop songs --
the Eagles Heartache Tonight, the Commodores Three Times a Lady -- but he kept
recording country songs, including the number ones Somebodys Needin Somebody, I
Dont Know a Thing About Love (The Moon Songs), Dont Call Him a Cowboy, and
Desperado Love, a 1986 chart-topper which proved to be his last number one.

Twitty returned to MCA in 1987, releasing the back-to-back number two hits Julia
and I Want to Know You Before We Make Love. Though he continued to have Top Ten
hits through the end of the decade, his success began to slip slightly in the
early 90s, once new country forced older performers off the top of the charts.
Nevertheless, he remained quite popular, selling both records and concert
tickets, until his sudden death from an abdominal aneurysm in the summer of
1993. Immediately following his death, Twitty was praised and mourned from all
quarters of the public, not just country music fans, and his record of over 40
number one hits (matched only by George Strait in 2009) remains a high-water
mark. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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