Roy Clark

During the 1970s Roy Clark came to embody country music both domestically and overseas. He shuttled between filling in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and drawing capacity crowds across the Soviet Union on an 18-date trek that sold out every show, deploying his instrumental skill and quick-witted stage presence to carry the genre into living rooms worldwide. For more than two decades he shared hosting duties on the long-running television program Hee Haw alongside Buck Owens, strumming, singing, and dispensing rural humor that reached roughly 30 million viewers each week. An entertainer above all else, he headlined rooms as varied as those in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the Opry. His polished, middle-of-the-road style occupied a distinctive space on the national scene—firmer than Kenny Rogers yet gentler and more inviting than Waylon Jennings. Vocal successes included the charting singles “Yesterday, When I Was Young” and “Thank God and Greyhound,” while instrumental honors arrived for both guitar and banjo. He also shared the screen with Mel Tillis in the comic feature Uphill All the Way. Although his chart activity diminished in the early 1980s, Clark remained with Hee Haw through its final episode in 1997, the same platform that had propelled him to lasting fame and, ultimately, a 2009 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Born to a pair of amateur musicians, Roy Clark took up banjo, guitar, and mandolin while still young. By age 14 he was accompanying his father on guitar at neighborhood dances. Soon afterward he captured two National Banjo Championships, the second of which earned him a slot at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite that momentum he briefly chased an athletic path, choosing boxing over baseball and winning 15 consecutive bouts before turning 17 and electing music over the ring.

Steady work followed at clubs, radio outlets, and local television programs. In 1955 he became a fixture on Jimmy Dean’s Washington-based Country Style. When Dean departed for New York, Clark assumed leadership of the show and quickly built a reputation as a polished musician and showman. Seeking wider opportunity, he relocated to the West Coast in 1960 and took the helm of Wanda Jackson’s band, contributing to recordings such as the hit “Let’s Have a Party” while also joining her on tour and in Las Vegas engagements. After Jackson disbanded the group, Clark maintained a regular presence at the Frontier Hotel and, through manager Jim Halsey, secured appearances on The Tonight Show as well as guest spots on The Beverly Hillbillies portraying Cousin Roy and Big Mama Halsey.

Signing with Capitol Records in 1963, Clark scored a Top Ten entry with his debut single “Tips of My Fingers.” A succession of modest hits followed until he moved to Dot in 1968. There his profile rose again via interpretations of pop material, notably Charles Aznavour’s “Yesterday, When I Was Young,” which reached number nine in 1969. The decisive boost, however, came from the television series Hee Haw. Launched on CBS in 1969 as a rural counterpart to Laugh-In, the program paired Clark with Bakersfield pioneer Buck Owens as co-hosts. Within two years it ranked among the network’s highest-rated offerings. Although CBS canceled the series in 1971 to pursue a more urban identity, Hee Haw thrived in syndication for the remainder of the decade.

At the height of the show’s popularity Clark amassed a run of country successes ranging from Top Ten releases such as “I Never Picked Cotton” (1970), “Thank God and Greyhound” (1970), “The Lawrence Welk—Hee Haw Counter-Revolution Polka” (1972), “Come Live with Me” (1973), “Somewhere Between Love and Tomorrow” (1973), “Honeymoon Feelin’” (1974), and “If I Had It to Do All Over Again” (1976) to numerous smaller-charting tracks. Even without consistent number-one records, he emerged as one of country’s most visible figures, appearing in commercials, continuing on Hee Haw, and touring extensively at home and abroad—including a landmark 1976 visit to the Soviet Union. He frequently collaborated with artists from other genres, recording and performing with the Boston Pops Orchestra and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown among others.

By 1979 Clark’s commercial momentum eased after he left longtime label ABC/Dot for MCA. A handful of minor hits preceded his departure from that roster; he issued one gospel album on Songbird in 1981 before moving to Churchill the following year. Although Hee Haw’s viewership had begun to wane, Clark broadened his holdings into real estate, minor-league baseball franchises, cattle, publishing, and advertising. None of his Churchill singles achieved significant chart impact, nor did brief affiliations with Silver Dollar in 1986 or Hallmark in 1989. By the mid-1980s, however, he had become a recognized country institution, so continued sell-out performances and awards accumulated regardless of sales figures; in 1986 he reunited with Mel Tillis for the Western comedy Uphill All the Way, and in 1987 he received belated membership in the Grand Ole Opry.

Throughout the 1990s Clark focused on regular performances at his own theater in Branson, Missouri, occasionally issuing re-recordings of earlier material on smaller labels. His first live album in nearly a decade, Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, appeared in 2000, followed the same year by Christmas Memories. Two further projects arrived in 2005: Hymns from the Old Country Church on Wonder Disc and the bluegrass-oriented collection Bluegrass: It’s About Time, It’s About Me on Varese. Roy Clark passed away in November 2018 at the age of 85. Two years later Craft issued the retrospective Greatest Hits, assembling his principal singles from 1969 to 1980.