I never put it together

John Ritter was Tex Ritter's son. I still find it hard to believe. They seem so different.

Here is a link to a story and audio with Tex Ritter's connection to KAAY:

http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/search?q=tex+ritter

Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "Music I Grew Up With":

What do you think of the country music now compared to the country before the impact of people like Graham Parsons and Emmylou Harris and their country rock influence?

When I was a youngster, my parents listened to Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (not Junior), Pasty Cline, Skeeter Davis and the Davis Sisters, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers, etc. But now, I feel like country is totally different, and maybe a little bit sappy and over-commercialized.
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Without a doubt country music today is yesterday's rock and roll. This is why the country market is so big. If the record companies would look at sales in country and gospel music they would find large increases while the rap hip hop or whatever it is, is down. True, country music has changed. It used to be called country and western. There was also blue grass.

I personally like a lot of today's country. And I like it because of the mass audience it is attracting. Even among the kids you will find country fans.

At KAAY we always played a lot of "cross-over" country songs. The strangest crossover song I remember was Tex Ritter's Hillbilly Heaven. Do a search in the upper left window and search tis blog for Hillbilly Heaven. There is an mp3 file of this song.

Something I didn't realize until lately: John Ritter was Tex Ritter's son.

KAAY in Hillbilly Heaven

I have made a major find in my limited archives. In late 62 or 63 Tex Ritter had a crossover hit called "Hillbilly Heaven". He then started doing special recordings for radio stations that mention the station's jocks at the end. I had one made for KXLR where I was program director at the time. Then, when I went to KAAY I asked Tex to make one for us. I found the acetate recording, and have transfered it to digital.For educational purposes only.
Select the first choice, it's label is messed up. It reads: "&Nbsp;"

Click here to get your own player.

More about Hillbilly Heaven

The story and music clip that follow, is about Tex Ritter's recording of "Hillbilly Heaven". When you hear it, you may wonder how a hardcore country song made it on top 40 stations. For those of you who weren't there here are the facts. Hillbilly Heaven peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 9/4/61. A couple of different versions are available on ITunes, Walmart Music, and Rhapsody.