Died On This Date (October 28, 2007) Porter Wagoner / Country Music Icon
themusicsover Porter Wagoner
August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007
Porter Wagoner was a three-time Grammy award-winning country singer who was instantly recognizable thanks to his sparkly suits and towering blond coif. Wagoner signed to RCA Records during the early ’50, and in 1955, he was hired on to perform on ABC Television’s Ozark Jubilee, broadcasting out of Springfield, MO. Two years later, he moved to Nashville and became a member of the Grand Ol Opry. Over the next five decades, Wagoner charted 81 singles. Songs like “A Satisfied Mind,” “Green Grass of Home,” and “The Cold Hard Facts of Life” are some of the greatest recordings country music has ever known. In 1960, Wagoner began starring in his own nationally syndicated television show, The Porter Wagoner Show. The program ran for twenty years and helped launch the careers of Norma Jean, Mel Tillis, and most famously, Dolly Parton. It was Wagoner who Parton was writing about when she penned “I Will Always Love You,” which became a massive hit for Whitney Houston almost 20 years after it was first released by Parton. Wagoner continued to work well into the 21st century, recording and making guest appearances on television. In 2007 he released the Marty Stuart-produced Wagonmaster, the critically acclaimed album that helped him experience a renaissance much in the same way Johnny Cash had in the mid ’90s. That same year, Wagoner opened for the White Stripes at Madison Square Garden. Porter Wagoner died of lung cancer at the age of 80.
What You Should Own
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Xavier Cugat was a musician, singer, songwriter, band leader, cartoonist, and actor whose various careers ran some 65 years. Born in Spain, he moved with his family to Cuba where he was trained on the violin. In 1915, his family moved again, this time settling in New York City. His first band of note, the Gigolos, was a popular Tango band in New York. During the ’30s, Cugat became the leader of the house band at New York’s fames Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It was around this time he got into acting, so he spent much of the next three decades flying back and forth between New York and Los Angeles to work at th hotel and make movies. He also did some time as the cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. Cugat made several hit records during the ’40s, most of them popular Latin dance tunes of the day. Xavier Cugat died of heart failure at the age of 90.