Recording Studio in Hollywood on May 19, 1953. The backing band consisted of Fuzzy
Owen, Lewis Talley, Bill Woods, and a young singer and guitar player named Tommy
Collins, who’d recently moved to Bakersfield and was living with Ferlin.
By July,
A Dear John Letter
debuted on the ‘Billboard’ charts, eventually climbing all the
way to the #1 spot, where it stayed for six weeks. Once it became a hit, Barton was
furious, believing that Owen and Talley had tricked him. Even more furious was Barton’s
music publisher in Los Angeles who held the copyright on the song. Barton didn’t have the
right to sell it in the first place, so negotiations were made that gave all three men writing
credit.
“Billy Barton was a con man who got conned
,” Fuzzy Owen laughed years later. For
his part, Barton reflected,
“If I would have been concentrating on my career instead of
doing all that side stuff I’d have been a big, big star
.”
Billy Barton’s Bakersfield tenure was short-lived, but his enterprising efforts opened the
floodgates for other Bakersfield music entrepreneurs to launch their own labels. Thanks to
his song, and Ferlin Husky’s advocacy, Nelson was eager to get the fabulous Bakersfield
Boys back to Hollywood to record more hits.
“Ken Nelson coined that term ‘Bakersfield
Sound
,’” Fuzzy explained,
“and it kind of stuck.
” Suddenly, Owen, Bill Woods, Billy Mize,
Cliff Crofford, Lewis Talley, Bonnie Owens, and their friends formed the core of a growing
Bakersfield music scene. Ken Nelson signed other Bakersfield singers over the next several
years, including Cousin Herb Henson, Tommy Collins, Dallas Frazier, Buck Owens, Al Brumley,
Bobby Durham, Merle Haggard, Red Simpson, and others.
The population of Bakersfield - particularly in the honky-tonks - leaned heavily toward
transplants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and other states that were most
impacted by drought and depression during the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ era. The fruit pickers, oil
field workers, and day laborers who filled the city’s beer joints and dance halls in the
1950s went out to blow off steam, which meant plenty of drinking, fighting, and - most
importantly – dancing.
- 8 -
