Very few recordings get a second chance to make the music charts-but this week in 1963, Ned Miller's recording of "From a Jack to a King," did just that.
Miller first recorded the song in 1957 and released it on Dot Records, but the record flopped.
He had been raised in Salt Lake City, Utah and taught to play guitar by his mother. He began writing songs as a teenager. He later joined the Marines and after his discharge, studied to become a pipefitter under the G.I. Bill.
During that time, Bonnie Guitar became interested in Miller's songs, and recorded one of them titled "Dark Moon." The record made the Top Ten and prompted Dot Records to want to hear more from Ned Miller. It was then he recorded "From a Jack to a King." The record went unnoticed. So Miller went back to pipefitting andwriting more songs.
In 1962, Fabor Robinson decided to re-release Miller's recording of "From a Jack to a King," on his own Fabor Records label. The single took off and scored on both country and pop charts.
From the start, Miller had little interest in a career as a singer and detested touring; he suffered constantly with stage fright and shyness, and was always a most reluctant performer. Stories are told of him on occasions actually sending a friend to perform as Ned Miller in his place.
"From a Jack to a King" entered the country music charts Dec. 15, 1962 and peaked at No. 2, where it stayed for four weeks. It was on the country charts for 19 weeks.
The single also scored No. 6 on the pop music chartsthe week of February 16, 1963.
One of the old sayings in the music business is that some songs, or records, will succeed in spite of themselves and despite Miller's reluctance to tour and publicize the song, it became a hit. Released in the UK on the London label, it also soon reached No. 2 in the UK pop charts. The old-fashioned, traditional-sounding country song was hardly a record that was ahead of its time, but it became an extraordinary success in Britain, where in April 1963 it held the No. 2 position for four weeks, in spite of the fact that there was no promotion from either the artist or label, and it went against the grain of songs that were hits at the time. It obviously says much for the quality of the song. Ricky Van Shelton made it to the top of the country charts with his version of the song in 1989.
(Photo courtesy Doug Davis)