Country Songwriter Series: Harlan Howard

Monday Mayhem 1 10AM-2PM
Hosted by Sally Goodin

Harlan Howard, 1927-2002, grew up in rural Michigan. One of his great joys was listening to the Grand Old Opry on the radio. He started writing songs at age 12. After serving in the Army, he moved to Los Angeles, in 1955, to try to sell his songs.

In 1958 he charted his first hit - Pick Me Up On Your Way Down, sung by Charlie Walker. The following year Ray Price had a number one hit with Heartaches By the Number. In 1960 Harlan moved to Nashville. Over the course of the next 5 decades he wrote over 4000 songs and charted hundreds of hits, such as I Fall To Pieces (Patsy Cline), Busted (Ray Charles), I've Got A Tiger By The Tail (Buck Owens), Why Not Me (The Judds), and Blame It On Your Heart (Patty Loveless).