She's The Girl On The Billboard...

Joyce Paul  -  I'm The Girl On The Billboard

Here's the answer song to the record posted by Debbie yesterday.

Six Days On The Road

From 1961, here is the rarely heard original version of Six Days On The Road by Paul Davis, made into a timeless country truck-driving classic when Dave Dudley recorded it in 1963.  Thanks to YouTuber Mattys45s for sharing it.

The tune was co-written by Carl Montgomery (brother of singer Melba Montgomery) and Earl Green, who also co-wrote another indispensable trucker classic, the Willis Brothers ' Give Me Forty Acres.

Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves (MP3)

Burl Ives (and Grady Martin And His Slew Foot Five) - Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves

Assuming that you've never heard this record, it's safe to say I was as shocked as you probably are now to learn that Burl Ives made a great record. It definitely didn't hurt that he had the legendarily talented Grady Martin manning the guitar for the session.

Preparation X (MP3)

Farris Garland & The Lonesome Valley Boys - Preparation X

I have no idea who Farris Garland is or was, but he deserves to be remembered for one of the most remarkable truck driving songs ever recorded. Preparation X is his deliriously cockeyed tribute to Preparation H, the hemorrhoid medication that's been around since the mid 1930s.

For the song, he shrewdly changed the name of the product to Preparation X, no doubt in an attempt to protect the Garland family fortune from Big Pharma's predatory legal sharks.

Since I don't expect I'll ever revisit the subject of hemorrhoid medication here on the blog, I should probably go ahead and mention Dave Dudley's Rolaids, Doan's Pills And Preparation H, a greasy 1980 release that somehow wound up being a minor hit on the Billboard chart. If you have the inclination and a strong stomach to go with it, you can check it out on YouTube.

Gear Bustin' Sort Of A Feller (MP3)

Bobby Braddock - Gear Bustin' Sort Of A Feller (1:58)

It's probably fair to say that Bobby Braddock experienced a great deal more success as a songwriter than as a singer. His songs have been recorded by a wide array of Nashville talents, including Marty Robbins, Tammy Wynette, George Jones (separately and together), Little Jimmy Dickens, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Paycheck, and Bill Anderson among many others.

His two best known songs were both co-written with Curly Putman: He Stopped Loving Her Today, which features one of George Jones' most powerful vocal performances, which is really saying something, and D-I-V-O-R-C-E, one of Tammy Wynette's signature songs.

When he came through Atlanta a few years back to promote his memoir about growing up in a sparsely populated central Florida in the years before Disney World came along (Down In Orbundale: A Songwriters Youth In Old Florida), I made sure to let him know his mostly forgotten trucking record was held in very high esteem in my house. Somehow, criminally, it never managed to hit the charts but give it a listen and see if you don't think Bobby was robbed. He was kind enough to sign my book "To Greg, A Gear Bustin' Sort Of A Feller."

My Benny's Wearing Off (MP3)

Tom Hyatt & The Black Mountain Boys - My Benny's Wearing Off (2:18)

My Benny's Wearing Off, a Sid Kleiner's House Of Guitars production, was recorded in Califon, New Jersey - less than 50 miles from WFMU headquarters in Jersey City.

Phantom 309 (MP3)

Edgar Buchanan - Phantom 309

I'm of the opinion that nobody could ever top Red Sovine's definitive version of Phantom 309, a spooky and dramatic recitation with a truck-driving theme composed by singer and songwriter Tommy Faile.

But Edgar Buchanan (Uncle Joe from TV's Petticoat Junction) has nothing to hang his head about.

Next week: Red Sovine himself makes an appearance with a song about about infidelity.

E-100's.