100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
One of the great crooners of the post-war era, Red Foley helped build a crucial bridge between the country music of the mountains and the Nashville Sound of the sixties.
Born Clyde Foley in 1910, his hair color earned him the nickname Red. His professional career was launched by a talent show win at age 17. As a freshman in college, he was discovered by a talent scout and invited to join the house band of the National Barn Dance. He released his first recordings in the mid-thirties, and by the end of that decade, he was the first country artist to host a nationally broadcast radio show, which he co-hosted with Red Skelton. During this period, Foley wrote “Ol’ Shep”, which would be recorded by many major artists, including Elvis Presley and Hank Snow.
Following World War II, he entered a period of stunning success in many media formats, earning himself the title Mr. Country Music. Throughout the forties and fifties, his recording career was incredibly successful, highlighted by collaborations with his band, the Cumberland Valley Boys, and fellow artists like Lawrence Welk, Ernest Tubb, and Kitty Wells. Several of his songs are now country classics, most notably “Smoke on the Water,” “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy,” and “(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me).”
Beginning in 1946, he emceed the Prince Albert Show, which broadcast a portion of the Grand Ole Opry’s show every week. His profile was raised even more significantly by the Ozark Jubilee, the fifties network television show that Foley hosted for many years. His television fame helped bring his smooth style of country music to a very broad audience, though Foley never actively pursued the pop music scene.
Indeed, his country records decreased in popularity as the Nashville Sound took root, though his gospel recordings remained quite popular. The sixties found him guesting on sitcoms and talk shows, while he continued to tour the world as part of the Grand Ole Opry cast. In 1967, Foley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, an achievement that was sadly overshadowed one year later by his untimely death at age 58.
Today, Foley’s name is not as recognizable as many of his contemporaries, but it takes only one listen to his signature songs to immediately grasp the impact he had on the development of contemporary country music.
Essential Singles:
- Smoke on the Water, 1944
- Shame on You (with Lawrence Welk), 1945
- Tennessee Saturday Night, 1948
- Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy, 1950
- (There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me), 1951
- One by One (with Kitty Wells), 1954
Essential Albums:
- Red and Ernie (with Ernest Tubb), 1954
- Beyond the Sunset, 1958
- Songs of Devotion, 1961
- Together Again (with Kitty Wells), 1967
Next: #61. Charlie Daniels
Previous: #63. Clint Black
Red was in that no man’s land between the Nashville Sound and traditional hillbilly. Many viewed him as too smooth and too slick whereas I always viewed him as a simply a very fine singer.
For years very little of his material was available in its original form. Fortunately that has been rectified by various reissue labels
Also Red, like Ernest Tubb, peaked before 1955 in terms of his record sales – in fact his last solo chart record was in 1955, so to the generation raised on television, he was a TV show host, rather than a big recording star
I think I would call the flip side of “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy” , “Sugarfoot Rag” an essential listenas well
Red wasn’t the only member of his familly to have success in the music business. Red’s wife Betty charted a few singles, his son-in-law Pat Boone was a huge star during the 1950s, his grand- daughter Debby Boone had one monster pop hit and some success on the country charts as well. Red has a grandson, Clyde Foley Simmons, who is a singer – he’s had no chart success but he’s a fine singer who performs at Pigeon Forge and has cut at least one very good album
I really enjoy Foley’s duet recordings with Kitty Wells, particularly “One by One.”