Bobby Braddock

Robert Valentine Braddock (born August 5, 1940) is an American country songwriter and record producer. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Braddock has contributed numerous hit songs during more than 40 years in the industry, including 13 number-one hit singles.

Bobby Braddock
Birth nameRobert Valentine Braddock
Born (1940-08-05) August 5, 1940
Lakeland, Florida
GenresCountry
Occupation(s)songwriter
InstrumentsPiano, saxophone
Associated actsMarty Robbins, The Statler Brothers, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Duncan, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tommy Overstreet, Toby Keith, many others

Early years

Braddock was born in Lakeland, Florida to a father who was a citrus grower. Braddock spent his youth in Auburndale, Florida, where he learned to play piano and saxophone. The musician toured Florida and the South with rock and roll bands in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At the age of twenty four, Braddock moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career in country music.

Musical success

After arriving in Nashville, Braddock joined Marty Robbins' band as a pianist in February 1965. In January of the next year, a song he wrote for Robbins, "While You're Dancing", became Braddock's first record to appear on the charts. He then signed his first of five recording contracts with major record labels and a publishing contract with Tree Publishing Company, now Sony BMG. Braddock quickly established himself as a bankable songwriter, penning songs in the 1970s for such artists as The Statler Brothers, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Duncan, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Tommy Overstreet.

Braddock continued his successful songwriting career well into the 21st century, writing songs recorded by artists including Lacy J. Dalton, T.G. Sheppard, John Anderson, Mark Chesnutt, and Tracy Lawrence. Braddock sometimes co-wrote songs with Curly Putman or Sonny Throckmorton, fellow members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

As a producer, Braddock's greatest success thus far is the discovery of country singer Blake Shelton, securing a recording deal in 2001. Braddock is credited as producer for several of Shelton's number-one country hits, including his debut single "Austin" which spent five weeks at the top of the charts.

Also in 2001 Braddock penned the song "I Wanna Talk About Me", intended for Shelton but eventually recorded by Toby Keith.[1] "I Wanna Talk About Me" topped the Billboard Country Charts for five weeks in 2002.

In March 2007, Braddock released a memoir recounting his early life in pre-Disney World Central Florida, titled Down in Orbundale: A Songwriters Youth in Old Florida,[2] published by Louisiana State University Press.

Braddock currently resides in Nashville and continues to write songs for the publishing company Sony/ATV.

In July 2017, Braddock was featured in an Episode of Malcolm Gladwell's Podcast, ''Revisionist History", which analyzed the emotional appeal of country music relative to other genres. Gladwell dubbed Braddock 'The King of Tears'.

Books

In 2007, Braddock published a memoir, Down in Orburndale.[3]

In 2015, Vanderbilt University Press published Bobby Braddock: A Life on Nashville's Music Row, a second memoir of Braddock's tumultuous career in Nashville's music industry.[4][5][6] The book was aided by 85 of the author's personal journals going back as far as 1971.[7]

Awards and recognition

Songwriting

Songs Braddock wrote or co-wrote that made the Billboard country singles chart include:

TitleArtist(s)Hit YearBillboard Peak
"Ruthless" The Statler Brothers 1967 10
"You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too" The Statler Brothers 1967 14
"Country Music Lover" Little Jimmy Dickens 1967 23
"D-I-V-O-R-C-E" Tammy Wynette 1968 1
"Ballad of Two Brothers" Autrey Inman 1968 14
"Something to Brag About" Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery 1970 18
"Did You Ever" Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery 1971 26
"Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)" George Jones 1973 7
"(We're Not) The Jet Set" George Jones and Tammy Wynette 1974 15
"I Believe the South is Gonna Rise Again" Tanya Tucker 1975 18
"Golden Ring" George Jones and Tammy Wynette 1976 1
"Thinkin' of a Rendezvous" Johnny Duncan 1976 1
"Her Name Is..." George Jones 1976 3
"Peanuts and Diamonds" Bill Anderson 1976 10
"Something to Brag About" Mary Kay Place with Willie Nelson 1977 9
"Womanhood" Tammy Wynette 1978 3
"Come on In" Jerry Lee Lewis 1978 10
"Fadin' In, Fadin' Out" Tommy Overstreet 1978 11
"Georgia in a Jug" Johnny Paycheck 1978 17
"They Call It Making Love" Tammy Wynette 1979 6
"He Stopped Loving Her Today" George Jones 1980 1
"I Feel Like Loving You Again" T.G. Sheppard 1980 1
"Hard Times" Lacy J. Dalton 1980 7
"Would You Catch a Falling Star" John Anderson 1982 6
"Faking Love" T.G. Sheppard and Karen Brooks 1983 1
"I Don't Remember Loving You" John Conlee 1983 10
"Old Flames Have New Names" Mark Chesnutt 1992 5
"Texas Tornado" Tracy Lawrence 1995 1
"Time Marches On" Tracy Lawrence 1996 1
"I Wanna Talk About Me" Toby Keith 2001 1
"People Are Crazy" Billy Currington 2009 1

Albums

  • Between the Lines 1979
  • Love Bomb 1980
  • Hardpore Cornography 1983

Singles

Year Single Chart Positions
US Country
1967 "I Know How to Do It" 74
1969 "The Girls in Country Music" 62
1979 "Between the Lines" 58
1980 "Nag, Nag, Nag" 87

References

  1. Braddock, Bobby (2015). A Life on Nashville's Music Row. Nashville, Tennessee: Country Music Foundation Press/Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 279, 282. ISBN 978-0-8265-2082-1.
  2. "A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida - Bobby Braddock". Down in Orburndale. 2002-09-15. Archived from the original on 2013-05-26. Retrieved 2013-05-02.
  3. Fresh Air (31 August 2010). "Bobby Braddock: Spelling Success With Country Songs". NPR. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  4. Chuck Dauphin (15 August 2015). "Bobby Braddock on New Memoir: 'I Would Rather Have a Bad Reputation Than a Boring Book'". Billboard. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  5. Rand Bishop (19 November 2015). "Eleven Chords And The Truth: Bobby Braddock Looks Back". American Songwriter. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  6. Steven Gaydos (3 June 2016). "Veteran Country Songwriter Bobby Braddock on Tammy Wynette, George Jones". Variety. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  7. Stephen L. Betts (19 October 2015). "Bobby Braddock Reflects on Iconic Work With George Jones, Blake Shelton". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
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