Joe Dowell
Harry Joseph "Joe" Dowell ( born January 23, 1940 in Bloomington, Indiana ) is a retired American pop and folk singer-songwriter; Later he worked as an advertising and public relations manager. In 1961 he was by his number -one hit Wooden Heart ( Do i denn ) known.
Life
Joe Dowell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, but drew even as an infant with his family to Bloomington, Illinois. At age 13, he began playing guitar and writing songs. When he was in the ninth grade class, he made his first appearance in a talent search with the Evergreen Unchained Melody. He studied Communication Sciences at the University of Illinois, 1960 as Elvis Presley for the film G. I. Blues ( Coffee Europe ) recorded the song Wooden Heart, an adaptation of the German folk song Must I then, because i must to Städtele addition. 1960 Wooden Heart was released in Germany as a single and came in November 1960 to number two on the charts. In the UK it was released in the spring of 1961 and rose in March even to the number-one position on the British charts. While Elvis Presley's version in Europe was successful, he had not been released in the U.S. as a single - main reason for this was that Elvis ' Single I Feel So Bad stood at that time in the U.S. charts.
Shelby Singleton Jr. was at that time a music producer in Nashville; Joe Dowell had an appointment to make his first recordings in the studio with him. Singleton had previously seen the Elvis movie G. I. blues in the cinema on the day and was already familiar with the Wooden Heart- versions of Elvis and Gus Backus. He recognized the potential of the song and let Dowell record the song. The young man came on May 26, 1961 morning at 11 clock at his recording session and had to learn German, foreign language for him part of the text within three hours. He recalled: " A man named Eddie Wilson came into the office to teach me what I should sing. . I had no idea what I was singing, I learned the text only phonetically " When recording Jerry Kennedy played bass in the style of the tuba of Elvis ' original; Ray Stevens drew the organ sounds that should come close to the accordion of Presley's version.
Dowell recording of Wooden Heart was released within three days on the Mercury Records label Smash. Dowell was sent on a four-week promotional tour. On June 26, his single debuted in the Billboard charts, sat on himself and on 28 August 1961, she captured the top position by Bobby Lewis. Two other singles with rankings in the top 50 prevented that he was a real one- hit wonder.
Dowell 's voice is very much like that of Jim Reeves. He considered himself a singer-songwriter, but his record company released his first album only with cover versions of current hits such as Gene McDaniels ' A Hundred Pounds of Clay or Bobby Rydell Swingin' School. But also songs by Dowell were found on some singles. For the second - and last - LP Smash Records in the title was the program: German American Hits contained titles such as Lili Marleen, on Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart, Morning and The Happy Wanderer ( "My father was a traveling man "). Due to the differences to the song material left Dowell Smash Records after two years and took 1963 Don McCathran Records, the label of the same high school teacher from Pennsylvania, another LP. By Joe Dowell Sings Folk Songs, however, only about 500 copies were pressed - a real rarity.
Dowell founded a production company for broadcast advertising and made a career as spokesman of various U.S. banks and financial institutions. In 2002 he recorded the album Of Earth and Heaven on with ten songs. Two years later, Bear Family Records released a retrospective with 32 tracks from the early 1960s, including the three hits. The following year, Dowell occurred in Jackson, Tennessee at the ninth Caravan of Stars. Also present were well-known artists of the 1960s such as Johnny Tillotson, Andy Kim and Billy Joe Royal.