Grand Ole Opry's New Star
| Grand Ole Opry's New Star | ||||||||||
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| Studio album by George Jones | ||||||||||
| Released | October 1, 1956 (original release) October 15, 2013 (reissue release) |
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| Recorded | January 19, 1954 – August 1956 | |||||||||
| Genre | Country, rockabilly | |||||||||
| Length | 31:17 | |||||||||
| Label |
Starday SLP-101 |
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| Producer |
Pappy Daily (Original) Eric D. Foss (Reissue) |
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| George Jones chronology | ||||||||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Grand Ole Opry's New Star is the 1956 country music debut album released by George Jones on October 1, 1956. with Starday Records. Produced by Jones' manager Pappy Daily, the album was recorded during early sessions in 1954, throughout 1955, and other sessions in 1956. It is also the first album to be released on the Starday label, a label only four years old.
Despite its mediocre sound (due in large part to the inadequate sound of Starday recordings), the album has become a huge collectors item. Online sales of original copies have ranged up from $200 to $500. On October 15, 2013, the album was reissued by Reserve Records, with the first 250 copies cut on blue vinyl and included a rare 45 of Jones' "Thumper Jones" releases.
Starday Records was an independent record label in Houston that was co-founded by Jones's producer and mentor H. W. "Pappy" Daily and Jack Starnes. Jones's first recording, the self-penned novelty "No Money in This Deal", had appeared in February 1954 and in 1955 he scored his first hit with "Why Baby Why", which would be the lead track on Grand Ole Opry's New Star. The title reflected Jones's 1956 appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, which solidified his emerging status in the country music world. Extant copies of Grand Ole Opry's New Star are rare, and collector's prices are $400 and up.
Jones wrote or co-wrote all fourteen songs on the album, which included three of his early top-10 country hits: "Why Baby Why", "What Am I Worth", and "You Gotta Be My Baby". The singer had performed "You Gotta Be My Baby" during his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1956. The first three songs written for the album, "Play It Cool", "Hold Everything", and "Boat of Life", were recorded between January and August 1954 at Starnes's Studio in Beaumont, Texas; the remainder of the songs were recorded in Houston at Gold Star Studio between March 1955 and August 1956.
Jones's first chart hit, "Why Baby Why", has gone on to become a country standard, having been covered by Red Sovine and Webb Pierce (a number one duet in 1956), Hank Locklin (1956), Charley Pride (another number one in 1983), Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson (1983), Palomino Road (1992) and Patty Loveless (2008). In the liner notes to the retrospective Cup Of Loneliness: The Classic Mercury Years, country music historian Colin Escott observes that part of the song's appeal "lay in the way a Cajun dance number was trying to break free of a honky tonk song." Jones recorded the backing vocal himself, with help from innovative techniques from engineer Bill Quinn, after a planned appearance by more established singer Sonny Burns did not materialize due to the latter's drinking. According to the book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Jones's frequent songwriting partner Darrell Edwards was inspired to write the words after hearing an argument between a couple at a gas station.
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Wikipedia