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| Felice
& Boudleaux Bryant
Induction
Year: 1972
Birth
Name: Matilda Geneveive Scaduto (Felice)
Date of Birth: 8/7/1925 (Felice)
Place
of Birth: Milwaukee, WI (Felice)
Date
of Death: 4/22/2003 (Felice)
Place of Death: Knoxville, TN (Felice)
***
Birth
Name: Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant (Boudleaux)
Date of Birth: 2/13/1920 (Boudleaux)
Place
of Birth: Shellman, GA (Boudleaux)
Date of Death: 6/25/1987 (Boudleaux)
Place
of Death: Knoxville, TN (Boudleaux)
(Boudleaux--on
advice to someone who wants to make it as a songwriter) "Unless
one feels driven to compose and at the same time has all the
instincts of a Mississippi riverboat gambler, he should never
seek songwriting as a profession. Unless you know in your heart
that you're great, feel in your bones that you're lucky and
think in your soul that God just might let you get away with
it, pick something more certain, like chasing the white whale
or eradicating the common housefly. We didn't have the benefit
of such sage advice. Now it's too late to back up. We made it.
Sometimes it pays to be ignorant."
(Felice--on
using songwriting tools like rhyming dictionaries) "I remember
I needed a rhyme for "hardware" in a song I was working on,
"Have a Good Time." I had the top and the bottom, but I
didn't have a bridge. I couldn't get anywhere. So Boudleaux starts
into the bridge and I thought 'Ha! What is he going to do with
hardware?' Well, he rhymed it with 'yard there.' 'Go peddle you
hardware. Try the folks 'cross the yard there.' My Lord! It just
knocked me out. Now, he didn't have a rhyming dictionary, because
that song was written before Chet (Atkins) loaned us such a thing."
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Former Occupations:
elevator
operator (Felice)
mechanic
(Boudleaux)
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Education:
Grade
School--Shellman (GA) Elementary (Boudleaux)
Grade
School--St. Casimir (Milwaukee, WS) (Felice)
High
School--Moultrie (GA) High School (graduated in 1937) (Boudleaux)
High
School--North Division (Milwaukee, WS) (Felice) |
Career Milestones:
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1937-1938--Boudleaux
played on radio station WSB in Atlanta |
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1935--Felice
started writing songs |
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1943--Felice
sang in and directed shows for local USO |
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early
1940s--Boudleaux started working as a Western swing fiddler; met
Felice when she joined the band |
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1946--first
published song, "Genevieve" |
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1948--first
publishing/recording contract with Acuff-Rose Publishing Company |
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1948--first
major cut, "Country Boy", recorded by Little Jimmie
Dickens on Columbia Records |
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1949--"Country
Boy" became first #1 |
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1949--performed
together on "The Coffee Clutch" radio show on station WBAY
in Green Bay, WI |
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1950--moved
to Nashville |
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mid
1950s--began writing for the Everly Brothers |
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1957--provided
the Everlys with two #1 pop and country hits, "Bye Bye
Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie" |
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1979--recorded
their own album for an English company |
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1982--"Rocky
Top" adopted as a state song of Tennessee |
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1987--musical
"Gander's Gap" premiers in Gatlinburg |
Awards:
1986--National
Songwriters Hall of Fame
1982--Georgia
Music Hall of Fame induction (Boudleaux)
1985--Atlanta
Country Music Hall of Fame induction
1986--National
Academy of Popular Music\Songwriters' Hall of Fame induction
1991--Country
Music Hall of Fame induction
1991--Nashville
Arts Foundation\Living Legend Award (Felice)
Catalog
Highlights
All
I Have to Do is Dream
-
Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Everly Brothers, Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band, Nancy Montgomery, Richard Chamberlain, Andy Gibb &
Victoria Principal, Osborne Brothers
Bye
Bye Love
-
Artists:
Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, Webb Pierce, Del Reeves,
Jimmy Rogers, Lacy J. Dalton
Wake
Up Little Susie
Country
Boy
Hey
Joe
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Carl Smith, Frankie Laine, Kitty Wells
Bird
Dog
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Everly Brothers, Bellamy Brothers
Rocky
Top
Raining
in My Heart
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Artists:
Buddy Holly, Leo Sayer, Ray Price, Hank Williams Jr., Jo-el Sonnier,
Kitty Kallen, Dean Martin
Let's
Think About Living
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Bob Luman, Trini Lopez
I've
Been Thinking
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Eddie Arnold
Richest
Man (in the World)
Love
Hurts
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Roy Orbison, Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris, Nazareth, Jennifer
Warnes
Devoted
to You
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant - Artists:
Every Brothers, Carly Simon & James Taylor, Felice Bryant
Come
Live With Me
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant
- Artists:
Roy Clark, Ray Charles, Boudleaux & Felice Bryant
Take
Me As I Am (or Let Me Go)
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Artists:
Ray Price, Bobby Bare, Bob Dylan, Mack White, Osborne Brothers,
Little Jimmy Dickens
Take
a Message to Mary
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant
- Artists:
Everly Brothers, Don Cherry
Penny
Arcade
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Writer:
Boudleaux Bryant
- Artists:
Christie Lane, Cyrkle
Mexico
Sleepless
Nights
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Artists:
The Judds, Everly Brothers, Jerry Byrd, Jimmy Rogers, Emmylou Harris
A
Hole In My Pocket
She
Wears My Ring
I
Can Hear Kentucky Calling Me
Midnight
Fall
Away
Before
the Ring On Your Finger Turns Green
Have
a Good Time
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Artists:
Tony Bennett, Jimmy Rogers, Sue Thompson, Peggy March, Boudleaux
Bryant, Ruth Brown, Billy Eckstein
Out
Behind the Barn
Willie
Can
We
Could
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Artists:
Jim Reeves, Al Martino, Billie Jo Spears & Carey Duncan, Osborne
Brothers, Jimmy Dickens, Charley Pride, Felice Bryant
Comments:
Boudleaux
was a trained classical violist (began studying when he was 5); from
1937-1938 he played for a season with the Atlanta Philharmonic
Felice
received 18 BMI performance awards and 4 one million performance awards
Boudleaux
received 37 BMI performance awards and 8 one million performance awards
Considered
to be the first writers to come to Nashville to make their living
solely as songwriters
Songs
that have sold more than a million copies each: "Bye, Bye
Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," "Devoted to
You," "Hey Joe" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream"
Recorded
as "Bud and Betty Bryant" on MGM Records
Boudleaux
and Felice were married on 09/05/1945
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