Biography
Working as a steel-mill laborer before shifting to songwriting, Hugh Lewis stayed somewhat removed from the mainstream country establishment yet still produced multiple chart-topping singles across the mid-to-late 1960s. In 1963 he left his laboring position and relocated to Nashville at age 31, following years of occasional stage appearances in his home state of Kentucky. Soon after settling there, he landed the novelty number "BJ the DJ" with vocalist Stonewall Jackson, who guided it to the top of the charts in 1964. Interpretations by Carl Smith and Kitty Wells appeared next, after which the Nashville community began cutting Lewis’s characteristically wry and ironic material on a consistent basis. Mac Wiseman scored a success with the down-and-out sobber "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose," and George Morgan’s reading of "One Rose" likewise registered well. Although a recording agreement with Kapp Records eventually followed, Lewis never developed a substantial performing career and proved far better suited to supplying songs for others.
Albums