This week in 1974: U.S. Air Force pilot James Sullivan flew from New York to London in 1:55:42 in an SR-71 jet; Newark, New Jersey, ordered a curfew and banned street protests to curb racial strife; President Gerald Ford granted a pardon to Richard Nixon; and a singer from Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, had her 37th hit record.
Some songwriters have a connection with some of the songs they write, while other tunes came from overheard conversations, etc.
According to Bill Anderson, he has a strong connection with one of his songs which came from a Peanuts cartoon!
Bill said, "I have something in connection with that song that I wouldn't take anything for and I've been told that it's quite valuable. Mary Lou Turner recorded that song first. And I got the idea to write that song from a Peanuts cartoon. One of the little characters in Peanuts, one of the little girls was having some kind of conversation and the last frame of the cartoon, she's sitting down by the side of this building and she just says to herself, "Poor Sweet Baby."
So after Jean Shepard cut the song and Mary Lou cut the song, I had saved that comic strip and I sent a copy of the strip to Charles Shultz, because I had understood that he was a big country music fan. And he wrote me a wonderful letter and sent me the original drawing of that comic strip, where he drew it by hand and autographed it for me. And I have it framed and I would not take anything for that."
Jean Shepard's Capitol Records single "Poor Sweet Baby" was released in September 1974, came on the charts Oct. 26, 1974 and peaked at No. 14.
It was her 37th charted song and was on the charts for 13 weeks.
Jean Shepard (born: Ollie Imogene Shepard in 1933) placed 45 songs on the country music charts between 1953 and 1978, including one No. 1 - a duet with Ferlin Husky in 1953 titled "A Dear John Letter."
She joined The Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and was inducted into The Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2011.
Jean Shepard died in 2016.
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