The music business is full of oddities – different artists with different sounds appeal to different fans.
Two of the most different types of artists to come down the pike would have been Hank Snow and Elvis Presley. And believe it or don't – a song titled "Now and Then – There's a Fool Such as I" scored in the top five on the country music charts for Hank Snow in 1952 and seven years later, it peaked in the top five pop charts for Elvis Presley.
The song was written by Bill Trader and Dave Stafford and was sent to Hank Snow in 1952. He liked it and it became his 13th charted song, peaked at No. 3 and was on the charts for 16 weeks.
During a two-week leave from Army basic training in June 1958, Elvis Presley came to Nashville and recorded "Now and Then – There's a Fool Such as I," along with "I Got Stung" and "I Need Your Love Tonight."
RCA Victor had planned to release "Now And Then" as the "B" side of Presley's next single but it jumped on the pop charts first at No. 64 and moved up to No. 26 the following week – while the flipside "I Need Your Love Tonight" made its debut at No. 33. It seemed that both sides of the record seemed to race each other up the hit list – exchanging lead positions every other week – until "Now and Then – There's a Fool Such as I" stopped at No. 5 while the flipside "I Need Your Love Tonight" settled in at No. 4.
But it wasn't over – the song slipped up to the No. 2 slot on April 27, 1959 for Elvis.
And despite having been on the country charts best selling list years earlier and Elvis's track record for selling records, the Presley version never made the country music charts.
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Hank Snow. (Photo courtesy Doug Davis)