This Day in Country Music History, December 19
2014
Republic Nashville releases A Thousand Horses’ debut single, “Smoke,” to radio
2011
Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood gets engaged to Warner Bros. marketing executive Kelli Cashiola at her home in Nashville
2005
Gary Allan collects a gold album for “Tough All Over”
1992
Alan Jackson scores a #1 country single in Billboard with “She’s Got The Rhythm (And I Got The Blues),” co-written by Randy Travis
1985
Johnny Paycheck shoots Larry Wise at the North High Lounge in Hillsboro, Ohio, after Wise asked if he’d ever eaten turtle meat
1980
Dolly Parton’s first movie, “9 To 5,” debuts. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin co-star in the picture, buoyed by a title song written and performed by Parton
1970
Loretta Lynn reaches #1 on the Billboard country chart with “Coal Miner’s Daughter”
1955
Carl Perkins records “Blue Suede Shoes” at the Sun Recording Studios in Memphis
1945
John McEuen is born in Oakland, California. The multi-instrumentalist joins The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1968, remaining with the group through its shift from folk and pop into country music in the 1980s
1920
Little Jimmy Dickens is born in Bolt, West Virginia. Just 4′-11″, he stands tall at the Grand Ole Opry, where, in 1948, he begins a membership of more than 50 years. He mixes country novelties with ballads on his way into the Country Music Hall of Fame
