Don
Gibson

Inducted
2001
Born
April 3, 1928
Died
November 17, 2003
Birthplace
Shelby, North Carolina

Three Genre-Defining Songs

Don Gibson was responsible for writing at least three of the most famous songs in country music history, for helping define the sound and studio style of modern country music, and for releasing more than eighty charted records between 1956 and 1980.

Born Donald Eugene Gibson in Shelby, North Carolina, Gibson got his start with a local band called the Sons of the Soil on Shelby station WOHS. In 1949, he made his first recording with them: a Mercury side called “Automatic Mama.” By 1952, he had gotten a job at Knoxville’s WNOX and was recording for Columbia. None of his recordings for the label were not commercially successful, but he was discovering he had a knack for songwriting.

By 1955, Gibson had written his first masterpiece, “Sweet Dreams,” later to a hit for himself, Faron Young, and Patsy Cline. It won Gibson a songwriter’s contract with Acuff-Rose Publications and a recording deal with MGM. Then, in 1957, while living in a trailer park north of Knoxville, Gibson wrote his other two career-defining songs on the same day: “Oh Lonesome Me” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” The latter would eventually be recorded more than 700 times by singers in many music genres and sell more than thirty million records worldwide.

Songs

Sea of Heartbreak

Don Gibson

Audio Progress

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I Can’t Stop Loving You

Don Gibson

Audio Progress

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Oh, Lonesome Me

Don Gibson

Audio Progress

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Introducing the Nashville Sound

In 1957, Gibson traveled back to Nashville to record “Oh Lonesome Me” for RCA. He and producer Chet Atkins decided to abandon the traditional steel guitar and fiddle and use a new sound featuring only guitars, a piano, a drummer, upright bass, and background singers. It became one of the first examples of what would be called the Nashville Sound and won Gibson a #1 hit; it also set the pattern for a long series of other RCA hits, including “Blue Blue Day” (1958), “Who Cares” (1959), “Sea of Heartbreak” (1961), and “Rings of Gold” (1969). These accomplishments were even more remarkable because Gibson achieved them while suffering from personal problems and drug abuse.

By 1967, Gibson had married Bobbi Patterson and was making a fresh start with Hickory Records, moved to Nashville, and once again began to concentrate on his first love, songwriting. “I consider myself a songwriter who sings rather than a singer who writes songs,” Gibson said, and as late as 1986 he estimated he had as many as 150 to 175 “working songs that were still performed enough to earn him regular royalties. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973.

In addition, as a singer, between 1949 and 1985, Gibson recorded 513 titles on a range of labels that included Mercury, Columbia, RCA Victor, Hickory, MGM, and K-Tel.

— Stacey Wolfe

Adapted from the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s Encyclopedia of Country Music, published by Oxford University Press

“I consider myself a songwriter who sings rather than a singer who writes songs.” —Don Gibson

Videos

“Sea of Heartbreak”

The Jimmy Dean Show live at Carnegie Hall, 1965

“One Day at a Time”

Pop! Goes the Country, 1974

Photos

Don Gibson performing on the Grand Ole Opry, 1958. Guitarist Jimmy Selph is to his right. Photo by Elmer Williams.
Don Gibson performing on the Grand Ole Opry, 1958. Guitarist Jimmy Selph is to his left. Photo by Elmer Williams.
Don Gibson, 1980s. Photo by Walden S. Fabry Studios.
Don Gibson, 1980s. Photo by Walden S. Fabry Studios.
Don Gibson and Wesley Rose holding gold records for Gibson’s double album, Country Number One!, released only in England, early 1980s. Photo by Walden S. Fabry Studios.