In the days leading up to the anniversary of Conway's passing away back on June 5, 1993 I thought it would be neat to look at some of the vintage newspaper articles down through the years that I came across on-line. A lot of the articles are written from a critic's point of view...not a fan's viewpoint...so some of the commentary can be a bit rough especially from critic's that perhaps had a bit of envy or jealousy over Conway's connection to the female followers of country music...envy ran rampant for years from a lot of male music critics who took out their irritation in album reviews...anyway, here we go... This is a write-up from 1990...you be the judge at how it comes across...
"The guy's so uncool, he has carried a pint carton of milk and a sack of cookies into the hotel lobby, where he sits in a red vest and a baseball cap, for Pete's sake, sipping and nibbling while strangers goggle.
"Hey, Conway, I grew up with you" says one passerby.
Conway Twitty, the Heartland Heart-Throb, shakes the guy's hand and replies jokingly: "A lot of people did".
Harold Jenkins is the real name of Conway Twitty. He is 56, a grandfather with curly gray hair, and after 34 years in the music business, he still turns out the hits and burns up the road.
He was a success before the Beatles, before Dylan, before Barbra, before Brubeck, before almost anyone anybody can name. Walter Cronkite played a Twitty song on an Evening News story about country music...and Twitty recorded "Hello Darlin'", a honkytonk smash...later singing it in Russian.
He was in New York for an appearance on the oh-so-trendy "Sunday Night", on NBC, where he sang "It's Only Make Believe", which was the song that made him a star.
That was a hit...wait for this...in 1958!
It was his only #1 pop song, but he has put 53 songs atop the various country charts, more than anybody in any musical category. His latest #1 was "She's Got a Single Thing In Mind" a few months ago.
"I've done 100, maybe a few more, maybe a few less. There are albums of mine out there I don't even know about. Somebody told me there were about five called The Best of Conway Twitty, Volume One!!" he says, laughing.
He keeps his albums in a warehouse at Twitty City, the 9-acre layout that he owns outside Nashville and where he lives amidst a museum, gift shops, snack bars, and homes for several relatives. Fans come by the bus load and if he's home, he comes out to pose for snapshots.
His longevity defies showbiz odds, even counting the traditional strong, enduring support country fans give their favorites through hits and flops.
"It's the songs. I've never reached the point where I thought that it was just me they wanted to hear."
Songs are so important that he discards his own...and he has written a roomful...if he hears something better.
More and More, he hears better songs. "I haven't recorded one of my songs since 1977", he says.
Mostly his songs are formula cheatin' and hurtin' ballads, delivered in his familiar low-register growl. The name helps: Conway Twitty is not a name easily forgotten. He adopted it after much thought...choosing Conway from a map of Arkansas and Twitty from a map of Texas."
That was the end of that write-up. In the hours to come I'll be sifting through a lot of vintage newspaper clippings found on-line and piece together a look-back, of sorts, through the eyes of critics and reporters...both positive and not so positive...but that's to be expected.
I won't be copying and pasting every single item that I come across but I'll try and feature a lot of quoted material that's long been out of print and out of circulation.
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