Since its original release, "Here Comes My Baby" has been recorded by over 100 artists, including Lynn Anderson from the album "Songs That Made Country Girls Famous" (1970),Dean Martin and Faron Young.
The album starts off with DJ Fontana's trademark machine-gun drumming and the band join in for a great rockin' version of ''Hound Dog''. The song features all the trademarks of the King's 1956 version, guitar, drums and hand-clapping and is a strong opener, leaving the listener in no doubt that they purchased wisely.
''Money Honey'' is a bouncy rendition which really works well with Scotty duplicating his original breaks to perfection. The fun and spirit of 1956 is captured.
''Don't'' again could be Duane. The guitar is nice and twangy and Boots contributes a couple of beautiful short solos.
''Don't Be Cruel'' doesn't quite work as well as the others. It's nice and bouncy but the problem is probably that the original had such perfect vocals.
''Love Me Tender'' is obviously slow and a bit lifeless but it features more classy sax playing from Boots Randolph.
''Mean Woman Blues'' is great. Jerry Kennedy keeps the track driving along nicely and there's a good short piano break. Scotty takes an absolute crackerjack solo and it's a great way to round off the album and show us all why his was ''The Guitar That Changed The World!''.
Robert Johnson, music journalist for the Memphis Press-Scimitar was certainly in the right place at the right time. He was there when Elvis started breaking into the big-time, he reported the signing to RCA, he was at the Million Dollar Quartet session on 4 December 1956 and also reported the episode when Scotty and Bill Black resigned. He also wrote the first official biography of Elvis in 1956. When the album was reissued in 1983 in England, the liner notes were by Johnson (Are these the original liner notes?). The notes are worth repeating here for anyone who shamefully doesn't have the album.
"Scotty was part of the most amazing musical adventure of modern times, the rise from rags to riches, and international fame, of Elvis Presley. His was the other guitar - the lead guitar! This album grew out of the fantastic experience of being at the side of the man who has sold more millions of records than any other singer in history. Scotty Moore's guitar has been heard on more million-record sellers than any other guitar, and he has been on all but a few of Elvis' major hits.
Scotty has been wondering, for some time, what the response might be to an up-dated instrumental interpretation of the music associated with Elvis. He wanted the same basic arrangements, but he wanted a bigger instrumental sound. It is now ten years since That's All Right, for instance, and Scotty wanted to update the rhythm pattern to meet the changes involved in a decade.
Scotty was the lead guitar on the original versions of all but one of the twelve numbers on this album. The exception is Love Me Tender, and the movie people used studio men for this. All of the musicians in this album, with one exception, have worked with Elvis in his later recording sessions. Drummer D.J. Fontana was along with Scotty on most of the originals. Most are featured stars in their own right - Bob Moore on bass; Boots Randolph, sax; Jerry Kennedy, guitar; Buddy Harman for the second drums; Bill Pursell, piano. The Jordanaires have, of course, been closely associated with most of Elvis' records.
The same idea Scotty had been nursing had also been in the mind of Billy Sherrill, A and R man in Nashville, who produced the album. This is the way it began - in 1954. I wrote the story about Elvis, Scotty and Bill Black, ran the pictures of them, and wrote thousands of words about them in later years. It is generally known how Elvis walked in and made a little record as a birthday present for his mother at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. Later, Phillips remembered Elvis and called him to sing everything he knew. Something was there, and Phillips sent Elvis to Scotty and said; "Work with this boy".
Then happened one of those strange coincidences which often make history. Scotty lived a few doors from Bill Black, bass player. They worked with Elvis, hour after hour, then Elvis started singing a song which popped into his mind, That's All Right, and all at once it was there - the drive, the excitement, the something. When they heard the playback, they couldn't believe it. All three had been exposed since childhood to a strange blend of music, from Negro field shouts to rhythmic church music, from blues to country and sophisticated jazz. Somehow they all seemed to run together.
They had a hit, but they were broke. They got together some money for petrol and hit the road in Scotty's old car, and when the car broke down, Elvis got a second-hand Lincoln, which Bill wrecked. They made a Grand Ole Opry appearance, then they went to the Louisiana Hayride, and suddenly it began to happen. DJ joined them. Once they drove home from Texas with 100 dollars each, and kept feeling it to make sure it was there. The fabulous Col. Tom Parker took them over. The crowds became bigger, the screams louder, and now you could feel the excitement. It broke wide open with Heartbreak Hotel, and Hound Dog set off a stampede. They were on TV with Milton Berle, and Ed Sullivan, for that fantastic 50,000 dollars an appearance, just a year after they had holes in their pockets.
Then came Las Vegas the first time - I was there, and saw that some of the older crowd were interested in spite of themselves. It was too big to be stopped. The rest is history.
Scotty was in four movies. Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole and G.I. Blues and worked on the soundtracks of all. When Elvis' movie work took him off the road, Scotty stayed close to records, and came up with his own million seller, ''Tragedy''. Bill Black's Combo also made it's name. Whenever Elvis goes to Nashville for recording sessions, or makes charity appearances, Scotty is right there at his side - the other guitar, the lead guitar - THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD!"
Shaun Mather, February 1999.
MARCH
1, 1964 SUNDAY
The Beatles recorded ''I'm Happy Just To Dance With You'' at London's Abbey Road Studios. Anne Murray later turns the song into a minor country hit.
Jennifer McCarter is born in Sevierville, Tennessee. As a member of the family trio The McCarters, she participates in three Top 10 hits during the late-1980s, ''Timeless And True Love'', ''The Gifts'' and ''Up And Gone''.
MARCH 2, 1964 MONDAY
During the first day of shooting for the movie ''A Hard Day's Night'' in London, England, The Beatles' George Harrison meets Patti Boyd, destined to become his wife. During their marriage he writes ''Something'' a country hit for Johnny Rodriguez.
MARCH 4, 1964 WEDNEDAY
Charley Pride signs his first management contract, with Jack D. Johnson.
MARCH 5, 1964 THURSDAY
Johnny Cash recorded ''The Ballad Of Ira Hayes'', based on the tragic life of a World War II hero, at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Warner Mack recorded the Jim Glaser-penned ''Sittin' In An All Nite Cafe''.
Hank Williams Jr. and saxophone player Boots Randolph appear on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
MARCH 6, 1964 FRIDAY
Skip Ewing is born in Redlands, California. After several hits as a recording artist in the late-1980s, he scores his biggest success as a songwriter. Among his titles, Collin Raye's ''Love Me'', Diamond Rio's ''I Believe'', Kenny Chesney's ''Me And You'' and Randy Travis' ''If I Didn't Have You''.
MGM released the Elvis Presley movie ''Kissin' Cousins'', with Elvis Presley playing two different characters.
Elvis Presley begins work on the movie ''Roustabout'' in Los Angeles, California.
MARCH 7, 1964 SATURDAY
Jim and Jesse and Ernie Ashworth join the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
ABC's ''Hootenanny'' takes on a country flavor with appearances by Eddy Arnold, The Carter Family, Hoyt Axton and Sheb Wooley, who perform ''That's My Pa''.
Lefty Frizzell begins a four-week stay atop the Billboard country chart ''Saginaw, Michigan'', written by Bill Anderson.
MARCH 8, 1964 SUNDAY
Wynn and Delores Stewart have a daughter, Wren Dee Stewart, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
MARCH 9, 1964 MONDAY
The Statler Brothers show up at a Johnny Cash show in Canton, Ohio, and open the concert when the Man in Black is late. Cash subsequently adds them to his touring cast for the next eight years.
Skeeter Davis recorded ''Gonna Get Along Without You Now''.
MARCH 10, 1964 TUESDAY
Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn recorded ''Mr. And Mrs. Used To Be'' at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
Carl Butler and Pearl recorded ''I'm Hanging Up The Phone''.
MARCH 11, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Elvis Presley is injured while filming a fight scene for ''Roustabout'' in Los Angeles. He requires stitches in his forehead.
Songwriter Jerry Abbott and his wife, Carolyn, have a son Vincent Abbott, in Dallas, Texas. Dad goes on to write the Buck Owens and Emmylou Harris hit ''Play Together Again Again''. As Vinnie Paul, son goes on to play in the metal band Pantera.
Capitol released Charlie Louvin's first solo hit, ''I Don't Love You Anymore''.
MARCH 12, 1964 THURSDAY
Roy Drusky recorded ''Pick Of The Week'' at Nashville's Columbia Studio.
MARCH 14, 1964 SATURDAY
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs are featured on ABC's ''Hootenanny''.
MARCH 15, 164 SUNDAY
''Lonely Teardrops'' songwriter Berry Gordy Jr. has a son, Kennedy William Gordy, in Detroit. The boy earns a pop hit in 1984 under the stage name Rockwell with ''Somebody's Watching Me''.
Having first met while filming the movie Cleopatra in 1961, actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor make their much publicized relationship official when they are married in Montreal. The two had both been married when they first started their relationship, a scandalizing event that garnered attention from the Vatican, which condemned them. The Burton-Taylor affair and marriage had the public fascinated and marked the beginning of the public’s enthrallment with celebrity relationships. The pair were married until their divorce in June of 1974. They remarried each other in 1975 but divorced for a second time in less than a year.
MARCH 16, 1964 MONDAY
Rock and roll disc jockey Alan Freed is charged in New York with evading more than $37,000 in income tax. He earned co-writing credit on the 1950s pop hit ''Sincerely'', eventually remade for the country charts by The Forester Sisters.
APRIL
1, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Brenda Lee has her first baby, Julia Leana Shacklett, via Cesarean section, at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hank Williams JR. performs during a Democratic fundraising dinner at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Nashville, Tennessee.
APRIL 2, 1964 THURSDAY
Jim Reeves joins pop singer Eydie Gorme and comedian Don Adams as guests on the ABC weekly variety program ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
APRIL 3, 1964 FRIDAY
The Statler Brothers hold their first recording session, cutting ''The Wreck Of The Old 97'' in Nashville, Tennessee.
APRIL 4, 1964 SATURDAY
Johnny Cash's ''Understand Your Man'' hits number 1 on the Billboard country single chart.
APRIL 5, 1964 SUNDAY
Duane Eddy and Jessi Colter have a daughter, Jennifer.
Columbia Records released Ray Price's ''The Other Woman''.
APRIL 6, 1964 MONDAY
Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''Wine Women And Song''.
Charlie Louvin donates a pint of blood to the American Red Cross, making him a member of the One Gallon Club.
APRIL 9, 1964 THURSDAY
The Los Angeles Angels, owned by cowboy star Gene Autry, file papers with the city of Anaheim indicating their intent to move the baseball team to Orange County.
ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' welcomes special guests Hank Thompson, Roy Clark and Molly Bee.
APRIL 10, 1964 FRIDAY
NBC present a special, ''The Tennessee Ernie Ford Hour'', with co-stars Jack Benny, Andy Williams and Annette Funicello.
APRIL 11, 1964 SATURDAY
Steve Azar is born in Greenville, Mississippi. He first gains attention with an independent album in 1996, although he waits another six years to score his first hit, ''I Don't Have To Be Me ('Til Monday)''.
APRIL 12, 1964 SUNDAY
Deryl Dodd is born in Comanche, Texas. Signed to Sony Nashville as an artist in the 1990s, he contributes backing vocals to a trio of Tracy Lawrence hits and ultimately becomes a force on the Texas red-dirt scene.
Amy Ray is born in Decatur, Georgia. She becomes one-half of the modern folk duo Indigo Girls, who provide background vocals on Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1993 country hit ''The Hard Way''.
APRIL 13, 1964 MONDAY
Actress Page Hannah is born in Chicago. In 1992, she marries pop producer and songwriter Lou Adler, whose ''Poor Side Of Town'' was a pop hit for Johnny Rivers when she was two, and again for Joe Stampley in 1983.
Capitol released Jean Shapard's ''Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)''.
APRIL 14, 1964 TUESDAY
Fiddler Stuart Duncan is born in Quantico, Virginia. He joins The Nashville Bluegrass Band, and plays on numerous country hits, including Faith Hill's ''Breathe'', The Band Perry's ''If I Die Young'' and ''Shania Twain's ''Man I Feel Like A Woman''.
Columbia Records released Carl Butler and Pearl's ''I'm Hanging Up The Phone'', and Carl Smith's ''Take My Ring Off Your Finger''.
APRIL 16, 1964 THURSDAY
Dean Martin recorded the pop single ''Everybody Loves Somebody'' in Los Angeles, with future country label executive Jimmy Bowen producing. Sitting in on acoustic guitar is Glen Campbell.
Carl Smith and pop singer Vikki Carr makes guest appearances on ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC-TV.
APRIL 17, 1964 FRIDAY
25,000 protesters including Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Phil Ochs attend March Against the Vietnam War in Washington DC organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
APRIL 18, 1964 SATURDAY
Homer and Jethro perform ''(How Much) That Hound Dog In The Window'' and ''Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes'' during ABC's ''Hootenanny''.
APRIL 20, 1964 MONDAY
Shooting is completed on the Elvis Presley movie ''Roustabout''.
Decca Records released Webb Pierce's ''Memory Number 1''.
APRIL 23, 1964 THURSDAY
Buck Owens and Molly Bee on the ABC variety series ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
APRIL 26, 1964 SUNDAY
Roy Orbison's 28th birthday party draws The Beatles among its guests.
APRIL 27, 1964 MONDAY
''In His Own Write'', a book authored by The Beatles' John Lennon is published. Lennon receives songwriting credits on the future country hits ''I Feel Fine'' and ''I Don't Want To Spoil The Party''.
APRIL 30, 1964 THURSDAY
Elvis Presley gets a new hair stylist, Larry Geller, who becomes something of a spiritual adviser to The King.
Dottie West is the marshal of the firefighters' parade at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia. Also appearing at the festival, Ray Price, The Carter Family, Mac Wiseman and president Lyndon B. Johnson.
Skeeter Davis and pop singer Julius LaRosa make guest appearances on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
The law was considered one of the crowning achievements during the civil rights movement and ended the Jim Crow laws that had legalized segregation in the United States since the end of slavery and the Civil War. While it did not solved the country's racial issues or end prejudice, it was the first step in creating a more fair and equal society.
While flying over Brentwood, Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm. A subsequent investigation showed that the small airplane had become caught in the storm and Reeves suffered spatial disorientation. The singer's widow, Mary Reeves (1929–1999), probably unwittingly started the rumor that he was flying the airplane upside down and assumed he was increasing altitude to clear the storm. However, according to Larry Jordan, author of the 2011 biography, ''Jim Reeves: His Untold Story'', this scenario is refuted by eyewitnesses known to crash investigators who saw the plane overhead immediately before the mishap, and confirmed that Reeves was not upside down. Jordan writes extensively about forensic evidence (including from the long-elusive tower tape and accident report), which suggests that instead of making a right turn to avoid the storm (as he had been advised by the Approach Controller to do), Reeves turned left in an attempt to follow Franklin Road to the airport. In so doing, he flew further into the rain. While preoccupied with trying to re-establish his ground references, Reeves let his airspeed get too low and stalled the aircraft. Relying on his instincts more than his training, evidence suggests he applied full power and pulled back on the yoke before leveling his wings—a fatal, but not uncommon, mistake that induced a stall/spin from which he was too low to recover. Jordan writes that according to the tower tape, Reeves ran into the heavy rain at 4:51 p.m. and crashed only a minute later, at 4:52 p.m.
When the wreckage was found some 42 hours later, it was discovered the airplane's engine and nose were buried in the ground due to the impact of the crash. The crash site was in a wooded area north-northeast of Brentwood approximately at the junction of Baxter Lane and Franklin Pike Circle, just east of Interstate 65, and southwest of Nashville International Airport where Reeves planned to land. Coincidentally, both Reeves and Randy Hughes, the pilot of Patsy Cline's ill-fated airplane, were trained by the same instructor.
On the morning of August 2, 1964, after an intense search by several parties (which included several personal friends of Reeves including Ernest Tubb and Marty Robbins) the bodies of the singer and Dean Manuel were found in the wreckage of the aircraft and, at 1:00 p.m. local time, radio stations across the United States began to announce Reeves' death formally. Thousands of people traveled to pay their last respects at his funeral two days later. The coffin, draped in flowers from fans, was driven through the streets of Nashville and then to Reeves' final resting place near Carthage, Texas.
JULY 31, 1964 FRIDAY
The Osmond Brothers are told during the ''Friday Night Frolics'' they will join the Grand Ole Opry the following weekend. The night is also the final time the ''Frolics'' a Friday night version of the Opry, are held at Nashville's National Life Building.
AUGUST 1, 1964 SATURDAY
Roy Orbison recorded ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' in Fred Foster's Nashville recording studio.
While searching for the wreckage of Jim Reeves\ plane crash in Brentwood, Tennessee, rescue worker Carol Crimmons suffers a heart attack.
Warner Bros. released ''The Very Best Of The Everly Brothers''.
AUGUST 2, 1964 SUNDAY
Two days after the plane crash that claimed their lives, the bodies of Jim Reeves and keyboard player Dean Manuel, plus the mangled plane they were flying in, are finally discovered beneath some trees in Brentwood, Tennessee.
AUGUST 3, 1964 MONDAY
The country Music Foundation registers its charter in the state of Tennessee, paving the way for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)''.
Filming concludes for the Elvis Presley movie ''Girl Happy'' in Los Angeles.
Danny Myrick is born in Mississippi. After a role as lead singer for the 1990s band Western Flyer, he earns hits as a co-writer of Craig Morgan's ''International Harvester'', Tim McGraw's ''Truck Yeah'' and Jason Aldean's ''She's Country''.
AUGUST 5, 1964 WEDNESDAY
CBS Evening News shows film of Marines lighting the thatched roofs of the village of Cam Ne, Vietnam with Zippo lighters including critical commentary on the treatment of the villagers.
AUGUST 6, 1964 THURSDAY
Twins Peggy and Patsy Lynn are born to Loretta Lynn. They become a duo, The Lynns, as adults, scoring several awards nominations.
AUGUST 8, 1964 SATURDAY
Dottie West and The Osborne Brothers join the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The Osbornes deliver ''Ruby (Are You Mad)''.
AUGUST 9, 1964 SUNDAY
Peter, Paul and Mary perform in New York at the funeral for Andrew Goodman, one of the three civil rights workers brutally murdered the previous month in Mississippi. Peter Yarrow will earn a country hit as the writer of ''Torn Between Two Lovers''.
AUGUST 10, 1964 MONDAY
Columbia Records released the album ''Another Side Of Bob Dylan''. Johnny Cash remakes one of the albums' songs ''It Ain't Me, babe'', later in the month, the first instance of a Dylan song becoming a country hit.
Mick Jagger is found guilty of speeding and driving without insurance in Liverpool, England. In 1969, he co-writes ''Honky Tonk Women'', ranked among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) passed by United States Congress. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. By the following year over 200,000 US Troops are involved in the Vietnam war and sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, begin lasting for the next 3 years.
AUGUST 11, 1964 TUESDAY
The Music City News, established by Faron Young, celebrates its first anniversary with a pair of figure eight races at the Nashville Speedway. The winners, Willie Nelson and Roy Drusky.
AUGUST 14, 1964 FRIDAY
Singer and songwriter Johnny Burnette's unlit fishing boat was struck by an unaware cabin cruiser on Clear Lake, California. The impact threw him off the boat and he drowned. When he received the news, Dorsey Burnette called Paul Burlison, who flew out to comfort him and attend Johnny's funeral. The two men were to keep in touch until Dorsey's death of a heart attack in 1979. Johnny Burnette is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, near his brother, Dorsey and their parents in Ascension, Lot 8276, Space 4. Johnny Burnette with his Rock And Roll Trio in the mid-1950s, he helped define the rockabilly.
Roy Rogers has a nine-hour surgery to repair vertebrae in his back damaged by years of riding his horse, Trigger.
AUGUST 17, 1964 MONDAY
Debbie Lee Rogers, the adopted Korean daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, dies in a Sunday School bus accident in San Clemente, California.
Marty Robbins recorded ''One Of These Days''.
AUGUST 19, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Dean Martin's ''Everybody Loves Somebody'' goes gold. The single is produced by future country executive Jimmy Bowen and features Glen Campbell on guitar.
The Beatles kick off an American tour at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Opening is The Bill Black Combo, but Bill Black is no longer part of the group, but it does feature guitarist Reggie Young, destined to play on hits by Elvis Presley and George Strait.
Pop singer Bobby Vinton, co-writer of the Marty Robbins country hit ''Adios Amigo'' has a son, Robbie Vinton.
Payments to Presley for each film amounted to between $225,000 to $1,000,000 up front, often half the budget for production, with a 50% share of the profits. These movies were being shot in sometimes as little as three weeks, with the complete scoring and recording of the soundtrack albums taking no more than two weeks. It fell to Freddy Bienstock, the assistant of Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to ensure that the soundtrack songs fit into the profit equation with the publishing controlled by Elvis Presley Music or Gladys Music, the Hill and Range Publishing companies owned by Presley and Parker. As a result, successful writers such as Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, and Don Robertson lost interest in adhering to the needs of the grind. It was interlocking self-promotion, causing one MGM employee to remark that the movies "didn't need titles. They could be numbered. They would still sell".
Blackwell and Scott in fact submitted a candidate for the title track, "I'm a Roustabout" recorded on March 3, only to find it substituted by a song from a different team of writers. This recording was eventually released by RCA on the 2003 compilation ''2nd To None''.
Presley and his coterie of top session musicians gamely plowed through all of this, and eleven songs were recorded for the twenty-minute soundtrack LP. Four songs from this album appeared on the 1995 soundtrack compilation, ''The Essential 60s Masters II'', "Roustabout", "Little Egypt'', "Poison Ivy League", and "There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon".
Rick Nelson is heard performing ''Mean Old World'' on ABC-TV's ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''.
NOVEMBER 2, 1964 MONDAY
Sam Cooke died at the age of 33 at the Hacienda Motel, at 9137 South Figueroa Street, in Los Angeles, California. Answering separate reports of a shooting and of a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke's body, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes but no shirt, pants or underwear. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart. The motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, said she had shot Cooke in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. Her account was immediately questioned and disputed by acquaintances.
The official police record states that Franklin fatally shot Cooke, who had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office-apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat, demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said she then fired at Cooke in self-defense because she feared for her life. Cooke was struck once in the torso. According to Franklin, he exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me", before mounting a last charge at her. She said she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot.
The motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, claimed that she had been on the telephone with Franklin at the time of the incident. Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshot. She called the police to request that officers go to the motel, telling them she believed a shooting had occurred. A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr had. Boyer had called from a telephone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped being kidnapped.
Boyer told the police that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed, and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said she ran first to the manager's office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled from the motel before the manager ever opened the door. She said she then put her clothing back on, hid Cooke's clothing, went to a telephone booth, and called police.
Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between her and Cooke that night; however, her story has long been called into question. Inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as circumstantial evidence, suggest that Boyer may have gone willingly to the motel with Cooke, then slipped out of the room with his clothing in order to rob him, rather than to escape an attempted rape.
However, questions about Boyer's role were beyond the scope of the inquest, the purpose of which was only to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing, and the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, provided a plausible explanation to the inquest jurors for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress. In addition, because Carr's testimony corroborated Franklin's version of events, and because both Boyer and Franklin later passed lie detector tests, the coroner's jury ultimately accepted Franklin's explanation and returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. With that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.
Some of Cooke's family and supporters, however, have rejected Boyer's version of events, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr. They believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from the three official accounts.
Singer Etta James viewed Cooke's body before his funeral and questioned the accuracy of the official version of events. She wrote that the injuries she observed were well beyond the official account of Cooke having fought Franklin alone. James wrote that Cooke was so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled.[56] Some people speculated that Cooke's manager, Allen Klein, might have had a role in his death. Klein owned Tracey Limited, which ultimately owned all rights to Cooke's recordings. Two of his songs are later remade as country hits, ''Bring It On Home To Me'' by Mickey Gilley, and ''Good Times'' by Dan Seals.
Ferlin Husky and Teresa Brewer are featured in ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC-TV.
Two singles and an album were released in the month after his death. One of the singles, "Shake", reached the top ten of both the pop and rhythm and blues charts. "A Change Is Gonna Come", considered a classic of civil rights–era protest music. It was a top 40 pop hit and a top ten rhythm and blues hit. The album, also titled ''Shake'', reached the number one spot for rhythm and blues albums. After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke's daughter, Linda, later married Womack's brother, Cecil. Bertha Franklin said she received numerous death threats after shooting Cooke. She left her position at the Hacienda Motel and did not publicly disclose where she had moved. After being cleared by the coroner's jury, she sued Cooke's estate, citing physical injuries and mental anguish suffered as a result of Cooke's attack. Her lawsuit sought US $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Barbara Womack countersued Franklin on behalf of the estate, seeking $7,000 in damages to cover Cooke's funeral expenses. Elisa Boyer provided testimony in support of Franklin in the case. In 1967, a jury ruled in favor of Franklin on both counts, awarding her $30,000 in damages.
DECEMBER 19, 1964 SATURDAY
Tulsa defeats Mississippi, 14-7, at the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, Texas. Ole Miss quarterback Jim Weatherly completes 16 0f 24 passes in a losing effort. Weatherly goes on to write ''Neither One Of Us'', ''Someone Else's Star'' and ''A Lady Like You''.
DECEMBER 20, 1964 SUNDAY
Johnny Cash recorded ''Orange Blossom Special'' in Nashville at the Columbia Recording Studio.
The Derry Down opens in Winter Haven, Florida, with a concert by Gram Parsons and his band, The Shilos. The club was established by Parsons' stepfather specifically to showcase his talents.
DECEMBER 22, 1964 THUESDAY
Roy Acuff begins a 10-day USO (United Service Organization) tour of West Germany to perform for American troops.
The James Bond movie ''Goldfinger'' opens in New York City. The film leaves an imprint on the lyrics of Sammy Kershaw's 1991 country hit, ''Cadillac Style''.
DECEMBER 23, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has a nervous breakdown during a plane trip to Houston. As a result, Glen Campbell is asked to play bass with the band on the road, a role he handless for the next four months.