Conway Twitty - "It's Only Make Believe"
Hit Number 1: November 10, 1958
Stay At Number 1: 2 Weeks
Conway Twitty, who was born as Harold Lloyd Jenkins, had a successful country career. I think we all know that. He's best known for his duets with Loretta Lynn, another iconic country artist. But before he launched his country career, he had success in the rockabilly genre in the 50s too. That's where he found his only career #1 in "It's Only Make Believe".
Jenkins was born in Northwestern Mississippi, and moved to Helena, Arkansas when he was 10 years old. While in Helena, Jenkins formed the group, The Phillips County Ramblers, and two years later even had his own radio show. He was also an avid baseball player, and received an offer to play with the Philadelphia Phillies, but instead was drafted into the U.S. Army. To entertain his fellow soldiers, he formed a group over there called the Cimmerons.
After the army, a neighbor of Jenkins told him that he had a shot of making it in the music industry. After hearing Elvis' song "Mystery Train", Jenkins started writing rock and roll songs. He went to Sun Studios and started working with Sam Phillips to get the "right sound". Jenkins later decided that his real name was not memorable enough, so he decided to make himself a stage name. He came up with Conway Twitty, by looking at a road map and spotting Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas. So he came up with Conway Twitty. Genius.
It wasn't long after that that Twitty wrote "It's Only Make Believe", a banger song about wishing that someone you love would love you back, but knowing that it's a long shot. Or that it is "only make believe" that that would happen. The best thing about this song, to me, is that Twitty's vocals start low, and he gradually goes higher and higher before shouting "IT'S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE" at the end of the chorus. The song is a strong showing by Twitty, and showcases his powerful voice that we would come to grow more and more familiar with as the years rolled by.
As I said, Twitty was certainly no one-hit wonder. He would switch to more of a country sound later on, and that's how we would all remember him. But his rock and roll career is nothing to sneeze at. Take this freaking banger of a song as an example. Twitty would stay active in the music industry until dying in 1993 of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
GRADE: 9/10
PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I know I've been MIA for a few days, but that's what happens when life gets in the way. I should be able to do better for a while now in getting these posts going.
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