George Jones
George Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas, September 12, 1931.
Known as one of the
top stars in country music to this day. Jones was a major star
in the 1960s and continued
with his fame into the 1990s. He not only made it as a single
artist, but he went to the
top of the charts and won many awards teaming up with Tammy Wynette.
Jones was
raised on country and gospel music and entertained at church socials.
He was encouraged
in the business by his parents who gave him his first guitar at nine
years of age.
H.W. "Pappy" Daily became interested in the young Jones and signed him
to his record
label in 1954. He cut his first single on the label "There Ain't
No Money in This Deal."
In 1955 he had a hit with "Why Baby Why." The success got him
a performance on the
Grand Ole Opry in 1956. He went on to follow with the
hit "You Gotta Be My Baby,"
before going over to Mercury Records and getting his first top-10 hit
in 1958 "Treasure
of Love," and in 1959 with "Who Shot Sam." He then got his first
number-one hit with
Sheb Wooley's "White Lightning."
In 1960, Jones went over to United Artist and had a list of hits with
them, and in 1962
had the number one hit, "She Thinks I Still Care," with many other
hits to follow. In
1964 he had a crossover hit with "The Race Is On." During these
days he was also a
top concert act with his band the Jones Boys. George was also
doing major country
shows like The Red Foley Show, Hee Haw, the Johnny Cash Show and
the Jimmy
Dean Show.
By 1971 he was having great success with hits and shows with is wife
Tammy Wynette.
His first duet single with her was "Take Me" then "We Go Together."
By the late 1970s
his life was a mess and he had many problems with alcohol and he became
a "no show"
at many of his performances. By 1980 he was over some of his
drinking problems and
had great success with "He Stopped Loving Her Today," released by Epic.
That year
CMA voted him Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, and Single
of the Year.
At the 1981 Grammy Awards he won for Country Song of the Year with
"He Stopped
Loving Her Today," and the Academy of Country Music voted him Male
Vocalist of
the year and naming the same song Song of the Year and Single of the
Year.
Some say he is the greatest singer in the history of country music.
In 1990, George
and Randy Travis did a single "A Few Ole Country Boys" that made the
Billboard top
ten and shortly after he was on the charts again with "You Couldn't
Find the Picture."
1992 CMA TV Awards he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In
late 1993 he released the album High Tech Redneck and continued
performing and
releasing albums and winning awards on through the 1990s.
