Working in St. Louis, Husky got to know a former Merchant Marine veteran. Louis in the early 1940s, and he hurried to enlist following Pearl Harbor. He was a volunteer gunner on a troop ship off the coast of Cherbourg, France, on D-Day. After the war Husky sang in St. After leaving Louis honky-tonks in the late 1940s, he moved to California and began playing with other musicians. Smiley Burnette, a former sidekick of Gene Autry, convinced Husky to take on the name Terry Preston and signed him up for a multi-state tour.
The background singers amplified the drama of Husky’s unique vocal on a recording that is commonly considered the original instance of the Nashville Sound production technique, using echo and minimal instrumental accompaniment. “He sounded nothing like anybody else or anything,” noted producer Billy Sherrill. A #1 country hit, “Gone” peaked at #4 pop.
Husky moved to the Grand Ole Opry after working on the television version of Springfield, Missouri’s Ozark Jubilee in 1955. “Gone” helped him land network television roles on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, where he appeared as a guest host on The Ed Sullivan Show, Kraft Television Theater, and eventually Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and Merv Griffin’s talk shows. Despite having to forfeit his Opry slot, Husky’s TV appearance brought him in front of millions of viewers.
Husky’s recording success led to featured roles in several motion pictures. These included Mr. Rock However, Husky’s live performances left the biggest impression on fans. He toured widely in the United States and abroad. “Ferlin Husky was the biggest live act of the day for a lot of years,” Merle Haggard recalled. “Nobody in the business could follow him.” A great entertainer. “.
Born on December 3, 1925, in Cantwell, Missouri, Ferlin Eugene Husky was raised as a sharecropper’s son on a small Missouri farm. Despite being named Ferland after a friend of his father, his birth certificate read “Ferlin,” and that spelling stuck. Before he turned ten, an uncle taught him how to play the guitar and set the family radio to KMOX-St Louis, he heard his favorites, Bing Crosby and Red Foley, singing smooth.
After starting his career in St. Louis, he joined the merchant marine during World War II.
His war experience was reflected in the song “A Dear John Letter.” The contents of the letter are sung by Jean Shepard, who tells a soldier that she’s going to marry his brother. Released during the Korean War, it gave Husky his first hit in 1953.
Husky, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last year, died at a Nashville-area hospital, according to a statement on his website. He had a history of heart trouble.
From the 1950s into the 1970s, Husky charted more than 50 country hits, the biggest of which were the heartache classic “Gone” and the gospel-driven “Wings of a Dove.”
Other hits for Husky include “Timber I’m Falling,” “A Fallen Star,” “My Reason for Living,” and “The Waltz You Saved for Me.” ”.
He learned the basics of guitar from an uncle. After dropping out of high school, he moved to St. Louis, where he performed at night in honky tonks while working as a truck driver and steel mill worker.
Performing since his teens, Mr. Husky had his first major success in 1953, when he recorded “A Dear John Letter” with singer Jean Shepard. The duet established Mr. Husky as a performer of spoken, sorrow-filled recitations.
After the war, Mr. Husky continued to craft the Crum persona while employed in Bakersfield, California, as a radio announcer. Advertisement.
“There were a lot of people in the studio, Grady Martin on vibes, and the Jordanaires as a vocal group,” Mr. Husky told the Nashville Tennessean in 2009. “The producer, Ken Nelson, got upset. “The session is off if one more person comes through those doors,” he declared. “And now Miss Millie Kirkham appears to perform the soprano vocal section.” ”Advertisement.
Recording costs increased with each additional sideman because musicians and singers were paid according to union scales.