About Me
Note: This page is not run by Harlan Howard Songs, this page was created as a loving tribute to the life and music of the late, great Harlan Howard.(September 8, 1927 - March 3, 2002)In a career that spanned six decades, Howard penned more than 100 Top 10 hits. The man behind such timeless songs as "I Fall To Pieces," "Busted," "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" and "Heartaches By the Number" was once dubbed "the Irving Berlin of country music" because of the size of his catalog of classics. A BMI writer for over 45 years, Harlan Howard provided hit songs to several generations of stars, from Kitty Wells to Patty Loveless, from Patsy Cline to Reba McEntire, from Mel Tillis to Pam Tillis. A who's-who of the country music world has sung his compositions: George Jones, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, the Judds, Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price and Conway Twitty, to name just a few. But his songs have also enjoyed R&B and pop interpretations by a variety of artists such as Ray Charles, Joe Simon, Shirley Caesar, Brenda Lee, The Kingston Trio, Kay Starr and Burl Ives.Harlan Perry Howard was born September 8, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan. After a difficult childhood in a number of foster homes, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and became a manual laborer. After military service, he settled in Los Angeles in 1955 and began driving a forklift in a printing factory. As a boy, he'd been captivated by the music of Ernest Tubb and had begun writing song lyrics. In California, he socialized with other country-music lovers; one of his early writing partners was Buck Owens. His first publishing deal came courtesy of cowboy stars Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond. Grand Ole Opry star Charlie Walker launched Howard's hit writing career in 1958 with "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down." The following year, "Heartaches By the Number" topped both the country and the pop hit parades in versions by Ray Price and Guy Mitchell. After writing for Kitty Wells, Warren Smith, and Jan Howard (his wife from 1957 to 1967), Harlan Howard moved to Nashville in June 1960.
Along with fellow BMI writers Bill Anderson, Boudleaux & Felice Bryant, Willie Nelson, Mel Tillis, Danny Dill, Marijohn Wilkin, John D. Loudermilk and Roger Miller, he was among the first full-time songwriting professionals in the city. Working at Pamper Music, he collaborated on songs with Hank Cochran, with whom he cowrote Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" and George Jones' "You Comb Her Hair." At one point in 1961 Harlan Howard had 15 songs on the country popularity charts at the same time, a feat not equaled since. BMI gave him 10 songwriting awards that year of the 39 songs on the "most performed" list and he was named Billboard magazine's songwriter of the year in 1962 and 1963. Prominence as a writer led to recording his own albums in 1961, 1965, 1967 and 1971. But the finest collection of his songs came with a 1967 tribute LP by Waylon Jennings, titled Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan. During his career, Jennings recorded more than 40 of Howard's songs, far more than any other artist. Howard was Jennings' songwriting mentor and his bonds with other artists were equally strong. Harlan Howard helped Bobby Bare obtain an RCA recording contract and lobbied for Conway Twitty's transition from teen pop idol to country superstar. He also opened doors on Music Row for current star Sara Evans. Howard's peers began calling him "Mr. Songwriter" after Ray Charles won a Grammy Award with "Busted" in 1963. Originally recorded by Johnny Cash, that song is one of a number of Harlan Howard compositions that have been recorded multiple times. Others include "Life Turned Her That Way," "The Chokin' Kind," "Yours Love," "Above and Beyond," "I Fall To Pieces," "The Key 's In the Mailbox" and "Too Many Rivers."
In 1982, Opry star John Conlee revived "Busted" and introduced "I Don' t Remember Loving You" and "Nothing Behind You (Nothing in Sight)". Thereafter, a new generation of Nashville stars began singing his songs. Reba McEntire ("Somebody Should Leave"), The Judds ("Why Not Me"), Highway 101 ("Somewhere Tonight") and others extended Howard's hit streak through the 1980s. In the 1990s Pam Tillis ("Don't Tell Me What To Do"), Doug Stone ("These Lips Don' t Know How To Say Goodbye"), Collin Raye ("All I Can Be") and more had hits with Harlan Howard songs. Trisha Yearwood and Aaron Neville won a Grammy Award for their 1994 revival of "I Fall To Pieces." At the 1994 BMI Country Awards banquet, Howard's "Blame It On Your Heart," co-written with Kostas and recorded by Patty Loveless, was named BMI Country Song of the Year. His presence on Music Row was such that that for a dozen years (1983-95 ) the community celebrated the "Harlan Howard Birthday Bash," an all-star concert staged in the BMI Nashville parking lot as a benefit for songwriter organizations. Declining health forced him to discontinue these events after 1995. Harlan Howard was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and, in 1997, both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Harlan Howard died in Nashville on March 3, 2002.
(-Bio by Robert K. Oermann)
