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The mention of the Lorne Greene hit "Ringo" stirred up a favorite memory of mine. Don Robertson, who wrote the song, was actually a proficient composer with a decent list of hits to his credit including.....
"Born To Be With You"
"Hummingbird'
"Please Help Me I'm Falling"
"I Really Don't Want To Know"
"Not One Minute More"
Several that Elvis recorded and his own #6 pop hit "The Happy Whistler". He is also credited with originating the piano playing style that Floyd Cramer made famous.
Sometime around 1966 when I was the music director at KMOR in SLC,UT, RCA sent us an LP ("Heart On My Sleeve") of Don playing and singing many of his hit recordings. We all knew the songs on the album and since our format included 1-2 album tracks an hour, we started featuring it at least once a shift. Keep in mind that no one called us up promoting the LP, we just liked it and so it got plenty of air time. Well it must have done well at the record stores because about 2 months after we got it, in the mail came a few more from Don, autographed and thanking us by name on each of them. I have mine hanging on the wall in my living room and I still play it now and then. I'll also throw in that I've been known to do "Ringo" in some Karaoke bars with decent response.
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One of the coolest things I've heard is Don doing a piano version of Earl's Breakdown. Been looking for it for a long time.