A country way of life, Episode 1 (Kenny O’Dell, Fred Foster, Boots Randolph)

Author: Jonny Brick.

Writer: Kenny O’Dell

Kenny O’Dell was born Kenny Gist in Oklahoma in 1944 and, like Okies the generation above him, moved to California. Swiping his mum’s middle name for his penname, his big smash was Behind Closed Doors, which nowadays would be called ‘boyfriend country’ thanks to its narrator putting his beloved on a pedestal, and indeed on the bed. ‘She makes me glad that I’m a man’ is a lyric that will reverberate through the years. There is a key change. It was an award-munching Song of the Year for Charlie Rich; Dolly Parton, Diana Ross and Bobby Womack also cut the song, as have Peter Andre and Jane McDonald!

O’Dell repeated the trick ten years later when he gave The Judds the song Mama He’s Crazy, which became the closing track of their album Why Not Me. It’s a perfect showcase for Wynonna, who confides in her mum Naomi that, though she’s ‘not the trustin’ kind’, it seems incredible to her that this gentleman is ‘crazy over me’.

Tanya Tucker took O’Dell’s song Lizzie and the Rainman all the way to number one in the country charts. The song has vaguely hippieish overtones and plenty of quirky production choices, with loud semiquaver drums after the line ‘somebody beat the drum’. Tanya describes the boldness of Lizzie Cooper who reckons he is ‘a lyin cheat…startin’ all these people dreamin’.

Loretta Lynn did the same with Trouble in Paradise, which begins with some mouth organ before Loretta sings of her faithfulness to a man who is seeing ‘those devil women’ who’ll ‘set your lover’s head a-spinnin’. There is a key change.

As well as writing hits, O’Dell also cut some records himself, including Let’s Shake Hands and Come Out Lovin’, which hit the top 10 on the country charts as people bought the comparison between love and a boxing match. The word ‘unanimously’ leaps out of the second verse, but as often happens when writers sing, Kenny’s voice is weedy and almost chaste, especially with the MOR arrangement with strings and a heavy backbeat.

Producer: Fred Foster

Fred Foster became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame three years before his death in 2019. He does not deserve to be forgotten: he was to Roy Orbison what George Martin was to The Beatles, producing all his biggest hits including Oh Pretty Woman.

Foster began his career promoting acts like Jimmy Dean and George Hamilton IV and, at the other end of his life, produced two of Willie Nelson’s many records. In between, Foster founded Monument Records, who put out Orbison’s records and those by Dolly Parton, who said Foster gave her a shot and was instrumental in getting her career off the ground.

Foster was given a co-write on the Kris Kristofferson tune Me and Bobby McGee, which was a smash for several acts including Janis Joplin and Bobbie Gentry, because he suggested the title; Jerry Wexler did the same by telling Goffin & King to write A Natural Woman for Aretha Franklin.

Player: Boots Randolph

The Boots Randolph smash Yakety Sax also came out on Monument. It was the musical accompaniment to Benny Hill’s capering on TV in the 1970s. Boots was one of the A-List session men who played the charts on the great country records of the Rock’n’Roll era.

Born Homer Louis Randolph III in Paducah, Kentucky, Boots started out on trombone and ukulele but took the sax to heart and to the army barracks. The success of Yakety Sax led to a panoply of recordings, where he tackled evergreen tunes like Wichita Lineman, It’s Not Unusual, Hey Jude and Gentle on My Mind.

Boots is on Return To Sender by Elvis Presley and the aforementioned Oh Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. There was no escaping Boots’ playing on Brenda Lee’s Rockin Around The Christmas Tree in 2023; fully 65 years after it was recorded, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, having been stuck behind Mariah Carey in recent years.

As well as being a regular on TV variety show Hee Haw, Boots went out on the road with guitarist Chet Atkins and piano player Floyd Cramer as part of The Master’s Festival of Music. It had been Atkins who brought him to Nashville in the first place, and Boots set up his own club in Music City to entertain tourists and locals. In concert, he jokingly referred to himself as ‘the world’s only hillbilly saxophonist’. He and his wife Dee were married for 59 years.

All Episodes can be found here

Follow Jonny through Country History episode by episode.

For more country music evangelism, go to countrywol.com where you can read Monday essays, Friday reviews and Sunday Hymn Sheets. Follow Jonny’s Country Music Calendar at the Country Way of Life Facebook page (facebook.com/acountrywayoflife).