In 1971, he issues his biggest hit, the chart-topper “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”, which is a story song, with the majority of the lyrics being spoken rather than sung. During the 1970 television season, he’s a regular on “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour”. pop chart, opportunities start to happen for Reed such as teaming up with Chet Atkins for the duet LP Me & Jerry earns the pair the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. He’s definitely a hard act to follow when it comes to his guitar playing.Īfter releasing the 1970 crossover hit “Amos Moses”, a hybrid of rock, country, funk, and Cajun styles, which reaches No. Furthermore, Reed is also respected by his musical contemporaries and the new generations alike for his unique and intricate picking technique. One thing that doesn’t come to mind is being touted as a teen sensation but back in the day, his songs were good considering Gene Vincent covered his song “Crazy Legs” in 1958. In his teens, it was rockabilly and country, then rock, outlaw country, country rock, swamp rock, and jazz to name a few. The reason I’m mentioning this is because Reed could easily play so many different genres of music. His last hits were from 1983, “She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)” and “The Bird”. Various other hits would follow in the ’70s such as “Lord, Mr Ford”, and “East Bound and Down” which came from the movie he was best known for his role of Cledus Snow aka “The Snowman” in “Smokey and the Bandit”. In 1972 success would be sweet again for his number one Grammy winning smash “When You’re Hot,You’re Hot”. Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley’s “Big Boss Man” (1967), recorded in the same session. Needless to say Elvis got his sound by having Reed play on both songs during the recording session. So Elvis has the producer call him (Felton Jarvis) to find out how to get his sound. Shortly after artists came calling! Soon after Elvis wants to record two of Jerry’s songs but he can’t get that signature sound that Reed is known for. Shortly after, he records the instrumental “The Claw”, following up with “Guitar Man”, “Tupelo Mississippi Flash” which is his first hit. They became close friends in the process. Atkins was true to his word and did a lot more than just mentoring Reed. Atkins suggests to Reed to write and sing his songs in his own style and that he would record them. Needless to say, he would go onto write songs for other artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee and countless others. His songwriting flourished as well with his first success with the 1962 Porter Waggoner number one hit “Misery Loves Company”. Atkins also helps him get a recording contract RCA while recording music with Reed shortly after. Who takes him under his wing and nurtures his session playing skills by having him sat in on sessions with Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare and countless others. At one point, when he was playing guitar, he happened to catch the eye of Chet Atkins. Even spending time in the Army and after serving, he reaches out to Columbia and Capitol records but wasn’t having any luck when it came to making albums and recording. I was lucky to see him perform on a few occasions and he was great!įurthermore, he’s been performing since the 1970s and early 80s. Also, he was a great storyteller to boot! He could easily be put on the spot and come up with crazy songs or guitar solos quite easily. With his laid back attitude, you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth when it came to singing and performing! One thing is true he knew how to read an audience and get their attention and keep it to the very end of the show. Jerry Reed was more than just a musician, singer, songwriter and actor, he was the whole package when it came to entertaining people.
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