Red Sovine – Teddy Bear, Song written by Billy Joe Burnette, Tommy Hill, Dale Royal & Red Sovine, the song was recorded by Red Sovine for the label Starday Records, with the production of Tommy Hill, was released in June 1976. On July 17, 1976, the song would reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles, and it would remain three weeks in a row until August 6. It would also reach number one on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks lists. Teddy Bear would be the third and final number one of Sovine’s career.
Teddy bear, would be included on the album of the same name, Teddy Bear (Starday Records 1976), the album would also get to number one of the charts of top country albums.
The song, in fact, a recitation with an instrumental endorsement, which tells the story of a paraplegic child, who loses his father (trucker) in a road accident, and keeps a CB radio as a reminder of his father.
The boy uses the CB radio, to talk to the truckers, using the nickname of Teddy Bear, he asks someone to answer his call, finally a truck driver answers him, the boy tells him the story of his father who had died in an accident working with his truck, his father had promised to take him with his truck, but since he had died, he could not get on the truck anymore. The trucker who was listening, decided to change the route to go to find the boy and upload him to the truck, the surprise was that when we arrived there was a line of trucks waiting to do the same thing. The mother was grateful for the detail of the truckers and thanked them for the CB radio.
This was one of many truck-themed songs from Sovine, who earned the title “The King of Trucker Music.” And there was no better time to sing about trucking and CBs. Long before the advent of the Internet, people were fascinated with the two-way radio method of communication, and it became a nationwide craze in the ’70s.
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Ferlin Husky 1987 ( Pickwick )
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Miquel Batlle Garriga
mbatllegarriga@gmail.com
COUNTRYPEDIA