Phone call cost writer credit on hit song
This week in 1961: Saudi Arabia ended a pact on the U.S. base at Dharan; the United States increased aid and technicians to Laos; President John Kennedy met with British Premier Ian MacMillan to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos; and a singer from Shreveport, Louisiana, had his 36th hit record.
A lot of songwriters windup as co-writers on some song by being in the right place at the right time. And others have missed out on co-writing by not being in the right place at the right time. For Hank Cochran, “Hello Walls” was one of those tunes.
Willie Nelson said, “Hank Cochran and I were in the Pamper Music writing room, which was actually a garage which had been converted into a sound studio and writing room for Pamper Music. I had the idea for ‘Hello Walls’ just about the time that Hank and I sat down to write. The Pamper Music secretary came in and told Hank that he had a phone call so he left the room to take care of the phone call and while he was gone, I wrote ‘Hello Walls.’ So if Hank hadn’t left to take that telephone call, he would have owned half of “Hello Walls.” Since then he and I have laughed a lot about that phone call that cost him half of ‘Hello Walls.’ But I think I may have laughed more about it than Hank has.”
Faron Young’s Capitol Records single of “Hello Walls” came on the charts March 20, 1961, made it to No. 1 and stuck there for nine weeks. It was his 36th charted song and was on the charts for 23 weeks.
Faron Young placed 89 songs on the country charts between 1953 and 1989, including five No. 1s. Seven of those 89 country chart songs also placed on the pop charts.
Faron Young joined The Grand Ole Opry in 1954 and was inducted into The Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2000.
Faron Young died in 1996 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 64 years old.
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