Howard, Harlan (8 September 1927-3 March 2002)

Extremely prolific and award-winning songwriter born in Detroit, Michigan, who is credited with writing over four thousand songs. He started out by copying down Ernest Tubb’s lyrics, as best he could, while listening to the radio. Sometimes he would miss out words or write them down incorrectly or illegibly and would try to put the pieces back together, and in doing so, embarked on what would become his life and passion: Songwriting.

A prolific reader, Harlan would devour several books a day. While serving as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, he taught himself how to play the guitar, and he and his buddy hitchhiked to Nashville, Tennessee, every weekend, to immerse themselves in Music City, U.S.A.

After fulfilling his obligation to Uncle Sam, he emigrated to L.A. and worked as a forklift operator. He made the most of his free time, writing several songs a day and shilling them during breaks. It was here in California that he met Buck Owens, with whom he would collaborate, and Johnny Bond and Tex Ritter, who gave him his first break.

In 1958, Charlie Walker recorded one of Harlan’s compositions, “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down”, which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country chart. A year later, Ray Price and Guy Mitchell both recorded “Heartaches by the Number”, running the table on the country and pop charts, respectively. Price’s version hung around on the chart for over nine months.

Spurred by this success, Harlan and his wife Jan made the great egress to Nashville in June of 1960. Acuff-Rose Music offered him a contract and in 1961, fifteen of his songs were in the country music top forty, a coup de grace unparalleled before or since. One of those songs was “I Fall To Pieces”, which helped establish Patsy Cline as a formidable cross-over artist. At this time, Harlan was knocking out two or three songs a day, and of these songs, a staggering dozen or so of them were being recorded per week. He even tip-toed into the studio and recorded some of his own compositions.

Harlan Howard Sings Harlan Howard was released in 1961, and he continued the trend, every few years, for a decade. In 1963, Ray Charles covered one of Harlan’s composition’s, “Busted”, taking it to #4 on the pop chart. In the mid-’60s, Harlan started up Wilderness Music and started publishing his own songs. One of these was “I’ve Got the Tiger by the Tail”, co-penned and recorded by Buck Owens.

1967 was bittersweet year: Waylon Jennings recorded a Harlan Howard tribute album, Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan, and Harlan and Jan were divorced. In 1969, Joe Simon’s recording of “The Chokin’ Kind” went platinum. Then, in the 1970s, the unthinkable happened: Harlan was beset by a paralyzing case of writer’s block that lasted about seven years.

In the mid-80’s, he re-emerged with a couple of chart-toppers: The Judds’ “Why Not Me” and Conway Twitty’s “I Don’t Know A Thing About Love (The Moon Song)”. He also took another shot at publishing his own music, forming Harlan Howard Songs, in the early ’90s. Unfortunately, health issues slowed his career, although he and his fifth wife, Melanie, continued managing the publishing company.

Harlan died suddenly on 3 March 2002. An all-star line-up of artists, including Bobby Bare, Sara Evans, Emmylou Harris, and Michael McDonald honoured him with a memorial concert at the storied Ryman Auditorium. Harlan Howard won fifty-one BMI awards during his lifetime. He is enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall Of Fame. On 20 June 2007, Harlan Howard was honoured with one of the Academy of Country Music’s highest accolades, the prestigious Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.

Joe Simon recordings
In My Baby’s Arms (Raeford Gerald/Harlan Howard/Joe Simon)

Sources:

Howard, Harlan (8 September 1927-3 March 2002)

Navigation