Buck Owens

Emerging during the 1960s, the Bakersfield sound found two primary architects in Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, a style that delivered a twangy, electrified, rock-inflected version of hardcore honky tonk. The first genuine country star to rise from Bakersfield, Owens tallied 15 straight number one hits from 1963 through 1967, supplying a sharp-edged contrast to the string-heavy Nashville country-pop then dominant. In later years some listeners overlooked his musical contributions because of his prominent role on the country comedy series Hee Haw. Even so, multiple generations of performers ranging from Gram Parsons during the late 1960s to Dwight Yoakam in the 1980s drew inspiration from his recordings, which ultimately served as one of the foundational models for contemporary country. 2016’s The Complete Capitol Singles 1957-1966, 2018’s The Complete Capitol Singles: 1967–1970, and 2019’s The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971-1975 thoroughly cover Owens’ essential recordings from the most productive stretch of his career, while 1966’s The Carnegie Hall Concert (aka Live at Carnegie Hall) documents him and his band the Buckaroos at their strongest in performance, and 2021’s Together Again gathers the finest of his duets with protégé Susan Raye.

Born in Texas, Owens saw his family relocate to Mesa, Arizona, during his childhood in search of employment amid the Great Depression. Music gripped him intensely from an early age, and he began playing guitar in his early teens. He left high school after ninth grade to labor on the family farm yet devoted considerable hours to mastering the instrument. By his late teens he held an occasional slot on local station KTYL Mesa and performed in Phoenix-area honky tonks and clubs alongside friend Theryl Ray Britten. At nineteen he married country singer Bonnie Campbell, and by 1950 the couple had two sons.

In 1951 Buck and Bonnie Owens departed Arizona for Bakersfield, California. There he became a steady presence at various clubs, most notably The Blackboard, where he sang lead and played rhythm guitar for Bill Woods & the Orange Blossom Playboys. He soon assembled his own group, the Schoolhouse Playboys, which also worked The Blackboard. Exposure in Bakersfield led to session work for Capitol, beginning with Tommy Collins’ 1954 hit “You Better Not Do That.” During this period Buck and Bonnie drifted apart and divorced in 1953, though they stayed on friendly terms and continued sharing custody of their children.

From 1954 to 1958 Owens contributed guitar to numerous Capitol country sessions overseen by Ken Nelson, including dates for Faron Young, Tommy Sands, and Wanda Jackson. He also worked occasionally at the Bakersfield studio Lu-Tal operated by Lewis Talley. At Talley’s facility in 1956 he cut his first solo recordings, ten songs for the independent Pep label. Those singles, among them the frequently covered “Down on the Corner of Love” and “Sweethearts in Heaven” plus two rockabilly tracks issued under the name Corky Jones, failed to chart yet drew notice from numerous country-industry figures. Around the same time Owens encountered struggling singer-songwriter Harlan Howard; the two became close collaborators, with Buck supplying music and Harlan the lyrics. That year they established Blue Book Music to publish their material.

Owens maintained a regular schedule in Bakersfield clubs. Performances there caught the ear of Johnny Bond and Joe Maphis, both Town Hall Party regulars signed to Columbia Records. Impressed, the pair forwarded a demo to their label, which promptly expressed interest in signing him. Several Capitol staff members urged country A&R head Ken Nelson to sign Owens as an artist, yet Nelson remained unconvinced that Buck possessed sufficient ability as lead singer or songwriter. Only after the Farmer Boys chose Owens’ material over Nelson’s did the A&R executive agree to sign the guitarist in February 1957.

Owens’ initial Capitol singles went unnoticed. These country-pop efforts featured choral backing vocals whose lush arrangements clashed with his plainspoken honky tonk origins, and both 1957 releases vanished without impact. Financial strain from poor sales prompted a move in January 1958 to a Tacoma, Washington, suburb where he took a position at radio station KAYE. Besides DJ duties and ad sales he performed in local clubs. By summer Owens believed his recording prospects finished, yet Ken Nelson declined to release him from contract. During a Capitol session that fall he was permitted a steel guitar and fiddle; one track, “Second Fiddle,” appeared as a single and unexpectedly reached number 24 on the country charts. Despite this first taste of success he remained doubtful about his recording future and stayed in Tacoma, hosting a live show on KTNT that introduced a young singer named Loretta Lynn. Equally significant, he met Don Rich (born Donald Eugene Ulrich) on that program; Rich would become Owens’ closest musical partner in the decade ahead and exert profound influence on his sound.

The fall 1959 follow-up “Under Your Spell Again” opened the floodgates, climbing to number four and initiating a run of Top Ten singles that continued with little interruption into the 1970s. After that hit Owens returned to Bakersfield. That winter Rich relocated there as well, joining the band on fiddle and guitar. Early in 1960 Owens acquired Howard’s share of Blue Book Music, securing sole control of his publishing. “Above and Beyond” reached number three that spring.

“Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)” arrived in fall 1960. January 1961 brought both the debut album Buck Owens and the single “Foolin’ Around,” which held number two for eight weeks. That spring a duet single with Rose Maddox, “Mental Cruelty”/“Loose Talk,” charted. Owens and Rich began touring nationwide, relying on pickup bands at each venue. They soon switched from acoustic guitars to bright, punchy Fender Telecasters; Rich eventually assumed lead guitar duties. This shift surfaced in the two 1962 Top Ten hits “Kickin’ Our Hearts Around” and “You’re for Me,” which replaced earlier shuffling honky tonk with bright, driving 2/4 tracks carrying a clear rock & roll trace. By early 1963 Owens had formed his own band complete with drummer, bassist, and pedal steel guitarist. One of the original bassists was Merle Haggard, who named the group the Buckaroos.

“Act Naturally” became Owens’ first number one single in spring 1963, elevating him to stardom and launching the streak of fifteen consecutive chart-toppers. Its successor, “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” proved his biggest hit, logging sixteen weeks at number one. Released in spring 1964, “My Heart Skips a Beat” spent seven weeks at the summit and was succeeded there by its B-side, “Together Again.” Later that year “I Don’t Care (Just as Long as You Love Me)” held number one for six weeks.

In 1965 number one hits included “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” “Before You Go,” “Only You (Can Break My Heart),” and the instrumental “Buckaroo.” That spring Owens placed an advertisement in Music City News declaring, “I shall make no record that is not a country record.” He then issued his ninth album, I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail, which contained a reading of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis”; he noted that “Memphis” was rockabilly, a style he considered part of country music. Also in 1965 he demonstrated business acumen by founding Buck Owens Enterprises, managed by his sister Dorothy, and the booking agency OMAC Artists Corporation. Blue Book Music prospered as well, with compositions by both Owens and Haggard generating substantial revenue. The following year Owens began acquiring radio stations; by decade’s end he owned four.

His achievements propelled national recognition of the Bakersfield sound. Haggard, Wynn Stewart, and Tommy Collins joined Owens under that banner. These artists refreshed honky tonk in pointed opposition to Nashville’s smooth country-pop. Consequently Owens ranked among popular music’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s, playing hundreds of shows annually, selling thousands of records, and filling venues nationwide. He extended his number one run with “Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line,” “Think of Me,” and “Open Up Your Heart” in 1966. That year he launched the half-hour syndicated music program Buck Owens’ Ranch, which reached 100 markets at its height. Number one singles continued through 1967 with “Where Does the Good Times Go,” “Sam’s Place,” and “Your Tender Loving Care.” The streak concluded when “It Takes People Like You (To Make People Like Me)” stopped at number two.

In 1968 Owens broadened his palette, introducing additional textures, tempos, and stylistic touches. Although he scored only one number one that year with “How Long Will My Baby Be Gone,” every single—“How Long Will My Baby Be Gone,” “Sweet Rosie Jones,” “Let the World Keep on a Turnin’,” “I’ve Got You on My Mind Again”—reached the Top Ten, all but one landing in the Top Five. In 1969 he opened a state-of-the-art 16-track facility in downtown Bakersfield named Buck Owens Studios. Capitol permitted him and several other artists, including Susan Raye, Tony Booth, and Buddy Alan, to record there, with the label handling only pressing and packaging.

Beyond his core country audience Owens attracted pop and rock listeners as well. The Beatles covered “Act Naturally” on their 1965 album Help!, and in fall 1968 he headlined and sold out two shows at Fillmore West. Further experimentation appeared in the two 1969 number one singles “Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass” and “Tall Dark Stranger.” That summer his second television program, Hee Haw, debuted. Conceived by two Canadian producers as a rural counterpart to Laugh-In, the show featured Owens and singer/guitarist Roy Clark as co-hosts. Owens taped only twice yearly—once in June, once in October—with his segments distributed across episodes. Initially a summer replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, its strong performance led CBS to schedule it for fall. As Hee Haw grew popular so did Owens; between December 1969 and February 1971 Capitol issued no fewer than nine albums, among them reissues and three new studio sets. He maintained Top Ten consistency with “The Kansas City Song,” which peaked at number two in summer 1970, and “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town),” which reached the Top Ten late that year.

At the start of 1971 Owens signed what proved his final Capitol contract. He recorded for the label another four years; upon expiration he gained ownership of all his Capitol masters from 1957 to 1975, though Capitol retained manufacturing rights until 1980. Throughout 1971 he continued charting in the Top Ten with a reading of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Ruby (Are You Mad),” and “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” CBS canceled Hee Haw in 1971, yet the program thrived in syndication. By 1973 its success forced Buck Owens’ Ranch off the air, unable to compete with the higher ratings of his later show. In spring 1972 he scored his last solo number one with the ballad “Made in Japan.” After that momentum waned; more than a year passed before he returned to the Top Ten with “Big Game Hunter” at the close of 1973. Two further Top Ten entries arrived in spring and summer 1974, though both—“On the Cover of the Music City News,” a rewrite of Dr. Hook’s “On the Cover of the Rolling Stone,” and “(It’s A) Monsters’ Holiday”—were novelty numbers.

In July 1974 Rich, Owens’ longtime partner and guitarist, died in a motorcycle accident, plunging Buck into profound grief. Although he managed one more Top Ten hit that fall with “Great Expectations,” he struggled to crack the Top 40 thereafter. His Capitol contract expired in 1975; he moved to Warner Bros. and began recording in Nashville. Predictably his music shifted toward the country-pop he had once opposed, as he ceded creative control to producers. Sales declined, yet Hee Haw remained popular. Ironically its success fostered an image of Owens as the cornball comedian from the show rather than the hardcore honky tonker he remained at heart. That perception lingered through the late 1970s, and even a 1979 hit duet with Emmylou Harris, “Play Together Again Again,” failed to dispel it. In 1980 he chose to step away from constant touring and recording, ended his Warner contract, and sharply reduced performances. While semi-retired he continued taping Hee Haw until 1986.

During the early and mid-1980s Owens remained largely out of sight while a new wave of country singers emerged. Like Buck in the 1960s they resisted Nashville’s pop-leaning mainstream and instead rooted their sound in the Bakersfield country of Owens and Haggard. Leading new traditionalist Dwight Yoakam persuaded Owens to join him on a re-recording of the 1972 song “Streets of Bakersfield.” After they performed it on a CBS television special the pair recorded the track, releasing it in summer 1988. “Streets of Bakersfield” became a major hit, reaching number one and marking Owens’ first chart-topper since 1972. Its success prompted a return to the studio for the album Hot Dog!, which achieved moderate success and revived his creative energy. He assembled a new Buckaroos lineup and resumed performing and recording, including a duet version of “Act Naturally” with Ringo Starr.

Owens recorded and performed sparingly in the 1990s, yet his classic Capitol catalog finally appeared on compact disc, having been unavailable since 1980 when he assumed control of the masters. His influence continued to resonate across country and certain corners of rock & roll. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1993 and hospitalized for pneumonia in 1997, he died at age 76 in his Bakersfield home in 2006.

Shortly after his passing Bear Family initiated an extensive reissue program of his Capitol recordings, culminating in three box sets issued between 2008 and 2012. In 2013 Omnivore launched its own campaign with Buck ’Em!: The Music of Buck Owens (1955-1967), mixing hits and rarities; a sequel followed in 2017. Omnivore also released three double-disc collections of the Complete Capitol Singles plus further archival material, including the 2018 appearance of the previously unreleased 1975 album Country Singer’s Prayer. 2021’s Together Again assembled the best-known of Owens’ duets with Susan Raye along with selected solo sides.