‘Flower’ song was a hit for Flatt and Scruggs
This week in 1964: 464,000 African-American and Puerto Rican students boycotted New York public schools to protest segre gation; A Los Angeles Court sentenced two men to life sentences for kidnapping Frank Sinatra Jr.; A U.S. recon - naissance bomber was shot down over East Germany; and bluegrass music’s premier duo had scored their eleventh hit record.
A lot of hit songs originated from something that somebody read or from something someone else read and told them about, and according to Mother Maybelle Carter—Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs’ 1960’s hit “You Are My Flower” was one of those tunes.
Mother Maybelle commented, “Sara Carter and I found some of those words, “you are my flower” in a pamphlet we were reading one day. We changed the words around and then added some words to it. I wrote the music to those words and that’s where the song ‘You Are My Flower’ came from. We started singing the song and people seemed to like it and it became a very good tune for us.”
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs recorded the song for Columbia Records and their single entered the country music charts Feb. 15, 1964 and peaked at No. 12. It was their 11th charted song and was on the charts for 18 weeks.
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Doug Davis & The Good Ole Boys will perform at Edgewood Manor at 10 a.m. today.