Joe Allison
Date: 1994 June 07
Length: 141 min.
Call Number: OHC11
Joe Allison Bio:
Country music radio personality, publishing and recording executive, and songwriter. Born October 3, 1924. Died August 2, 2002. Full name Joe Marion Allison. Career active from the late 1930s through the mid-1970s. Produced Country America for ABC-TV in the late 1950s. Producer for Liberty Records, Paramount, and Capitol Records in the 1960s and 1970s. As a songwriter, his credits include "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young" (recorded by Faron Young, 1955), and "He'll Have to Go" (recorded by Jim Reeves, 1960). Member, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Oral History Interview Summary
1994 June 7
(1 hour, 21 minutes)
Joe Allison talks about the various music-related organizations he's been involved with, as well as other songwriters. Topics discussed include stories about Roger Miller; how the Academy of Country Music was organized as an anti-Nashville group; the formation of NARAS; the Grammy awards broadcast from Nashville; the birth of Nashville Songwriters Association International and its growth; the importance of songwriters and good songs; the Tennessee Performing Arts Commission; how the Disc Jockey Hall of Fame was started; charter members of the Country Music Disc Jockey Association, including Bill Lowery, T. Tommy Cutrer, Si Siman, Shorty Long, and Biff Collie; songs he's written, including "He'll Have To Go," "It Scares Me Half to Death," and "Rock City Boogie"; Tommy Sands making "Teenage Crush" a hit; "I'd Fight the World" by Jim Reeves; his favorite self-penned songs, including "Just Another Man," "For the Life of Me," and "Old Lovers Make Bad Friends"; what makes a high quality song; impressions of fellow songwriters Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran, and Hank Williams; Fred Rose; trends in country songwriting; the pop infusion into country music; Nashville as Music City; and the rise of syndicated radio and television shows.
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