Jerry Reed Autographed PhotoJerry Reed began performing in night clubs and bars in the Atlanta area as a teenager. He had learned to play the guitar in elementary school. He became good enough at it that he was able to drop out of high school and support himself, playing with country music stars like Ernest Tubb and Faron Young.When he was just sixteen, Atlanta based music publisher Bill Lowery helped him get a writing and recording contract with the country division of Capitol Records. He recorded his first record, "If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creeks Don't Rise," in 1955 at the age of 18. Though they weren't hugely successful, he continued releasing country and rockabilly records for the next three years. Then his song "Crazy Legs" was covered by Gene Vincent and he was on the road to stardom. In 1958, left Capitol and signed with Bill Lowery's National Recording Corporation (NRC) label in Atlanta. He recorded six songs for NRC: "Little Lovin' Liza," "Have Blues, Will Travel," "Stone Eternal," "Soldier's Joy," "Just Right," and "This Can't Be Happening to Me." Reed wasn't happy with his progress at NRC, so he joined the Army. He continued to write songs during his two year Army tour, scoring a hit when Brenda Lee covered his "That's All You Got to Do" on the flip side of "I'm Sorry." After the Army, he moved to Nashville to work as a songwriter. Chet Atkins recorded Reed's song "Scarecrow," and Porter Wagner recorded his song “Misery Loves Company," taking it all the way to Number One on the country charts. He also found work as a session guitarist and stayed busy playing with some of the biggest stars of that time - Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Ian & Sylvia, Joan Baez, Ringo Starr, were some of the names that he recorded with. In 1967, Reed released his first RCA Victor album, "The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed." That year Elvis recorded two songs from the album, "Guitar Man" and "U.S. Male." Reed played guitar on those songs. Reed wrote more than 300 songs during his career. In 1971, Johnny Cash had a Number Two hit with Reed's "A Thing Called Love." Jerry Reed was a hit machine from 1967 until 1983. His voice was instantly recognizable on the radio on hits like “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” and "Amos Moses." “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” was on the Billboard Country Chart for five weeks in 1971 and crossed over to the Board Pop Chart Top Ten. "Amos Moses" also crossed over to the Pop Chart.  Reed won a Grammy for "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and he was named musician of the year by the Country Music Association in 1970 and 1971. Jerry Reed was a regular guest on popular TV variety shows like "The Johnny Cash Show" and "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour." This led to movie roles. He became close friends with Burt Reynolds and co-starred in several movies at a time when Reynolds was Hollywood's top drawing movie star. “W. W. and the Dixie Dance Kings” and the immensely popular “Smokey and the Bandit” movies featured Reed's music. Reed died on August 31, 2008, at the age of 71. |
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