Song:Oh Lonesome Me
Album:RCA Country Legends
Don Gibson was one of the most successful singer songwriters in Nashville. He had a long run on the country charts but the 1958 hit Oh Lonesome Me was his biggest pop crossover hit. He was born Apr. 3, 1928 in Shelby, NC. His father died when he was two and his mother married a sharecropper. But Gibson hated farming and listened to the radio and dreamed of performing music. He foolishly left school after grade two and made a living as a pool shark and bought a guitar at age 14. He was mentored by fiddler Ned Costner. They practiced at his home. They added another teen guitarist Curly Sisk and called themselves Sons of the Soil. They were hired by a local radio station and Gibson joined a group called The Hi-Lighters. A salesman at the radio station got them an audition at Mercury Records. They recorded a few singles in 1949 but Sisk left and they split up. Gibson recorded for RCA and Columbia in the early 50s but then his songs started getting attention and Sweet Dreams got him a deal at Acuff-Rose and then MGM Records. Faron Young had a hit with Sweet Dreams. This got Chet Atkins' attention and he signed Gibson to RCA in 1957. Oh Lonesome Me was his first single in 1958 and it topped the country charts and reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gibson continued to have a lot of success on the country charts but I Can't Stop Loving You was a pop hit for Ray Charles and Patsy Cline scored with Sweet Dreams. He was very respected as a singer and songwriter. This comp covers his RCA years. Gibson faded in the late 60s, had some drug and alcohol issues. But he recovered and returned on Hickory Records in the 70s and continued to have success on the country charts until 1980. Don Gibson was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001 and died on Nov. 17, 2003 at age 75. Here's Don Gibson performing Oh Lonesome Me 1958.
a truly great talent.
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