While Johnny Cash was topping the charts in 1963 with his song “Ring of Fire,” he had a chance encounter with four young guys while performing at the Virginia Roanoke Fair.
The Statler Brothers were hired “on a handshake” after impressing Cash with their vocals. They toured with the “Man in Black” for over ten years, which served as the inspiration for their song “We Got Paid by Cash.”
Learn more about the renowned quartet that brought tears to America’s eyes with their song “More than a Name on the Wall” by continuing to read.
The other Kingsmen, from Virginia, were forced to rename their quartet after their song “Louie Louie” shot to the top of the charts in 1963.
Don and Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Lew DeWitt, and the other four youngsters were on tour and in a hotel room discussing new names to break their band apart from the Oregon-based quintet.
Don had previously revealed to a Virginia newspaper that he had hit a box of Statler brand tissues in the room with his eyes.
The moniker endured.
Don remarked of the new age of two brothers and two buddies, the Statler Brothers, “We could have been the Kleenex Brothers.”
The legendary Johnny Cash saw the Statler Brothers the same year while they were performing at the Roanoke Fair in Salem, Virginia. Their gospel harmonies mixed with country tones.
While promoting his 16th record at the Salem Fairgrounds, Cash “on a handshake” recruited them.
Reid described John as a “walking, talkin’, singin’ musical encyclopedia.”
The “Class of ’57” vocalists spent the next ten years touring, recording, and making TV appearances with Cash, who helped the young guys establish themselves as Columbia Records hitmakers.
Their cross-genre smash, “Flowers on the Wall,” peaked at number one in both pop and country music in 1965. The Statler Brothers took home their first two Grammy Awards, Best New Country and Western Artist and Best Contemporary Performance (Group), defeating the Beatles’ “Help!” and the Supremes’ “Stop in the Name of Love.”
In 1994, the song’s fame surged once more following the release of Quentin Tarantino’s smash hit film Pulp Fiction. In one scene, Bruce Willis’s character Butch is running down Samuel L. Jackson while “Flowers on the Wall” is blasting from the car radio.
The song may be found on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction, which has sold over a million copies.
Bruce Willis helps very few individuals, Harold said in a 2015 interview with the News Leader.
Cashing in Not many other people received assistance from Cash.
Our education in the music industry was provided by spending those years with him. We left on good terms, having learned what to do and what not to do. stated Reid.
The “Do You Know You are My Sunshine?” vocalists won numerous awards over their 12-year career, including nine nominations for Vocal Group of the Year from the Country Music Association. They also recorded over 40 albums.
The group had a variety program of its own on The Nashville Network (TNN) from 1991 until 1988. The weekly program, which showcased Harold’s comedic abilities as a founding member, peaked at number one on TNN and was the most watched program in the network’s history in 1992.
In a particular episode, fans were treated to a moving rendition of the song “More Than a Name on the Wall,” which moved people to tears across the country.
Composed by Jimmy Fortune—who succeeded DeWitt following his departure in 1990 due to health issues—the song narrates the tale of the black, polished Vietnam Memorial wall, which bears the inscriptions of 58,381 soldiers who lost their lives in combat.
In an interview with Strictly Country, Fortune discusses the source of inspiration behind the devastating song.
“You examine it. He was speaking of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. “You look at each one of those lines from a distance, you see those lines stacked on top of each other, and they seem to go on forever, and forever, and forever,” he remarked. “I understood that to be a kid of a mother. That person’s spouse was that. Just all the tales and recollections of that young one…They are more than just a name on a wall, it suddenly dawned on me.
Fortune, the lead singer and songwriter of the popular song “Elizabeth” from 1984, continued, “It was just such a profound statement.” I mentally noted it. I need to write that down.
Harold Reid lost his fight with kidney disease in April 2020.
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