Did We Have a Party: Honky Tonk Heroes

(CD digipac with 60-page booklet) A landmark first-ever CD by one of the best but least celebrated country and rock & roll singers! This was the hard-luck guy who recorded the original version of Jim Reeves' mega-hit, He'll Have To Go! In all, 30 top class rockabilly, hillbilly, country, and rockaballad tracks recorded between 1950 and 1969 in Nashville! Includes all 8 highly collectible rock & roll and country singles recorded for COLUMBIA in the early and late 1950s, 2 singles for DECCA and STARS from the mid-'50s, 3 REPUBLIC discs from the early '60s, and a single on CHALLENGE from 1969! Plus two unissued tracks from CHALLENGE! Includes Brown's classic rockers Did We Have A Party, Flip Out, and Meet Me In The Alley, Sally! Brown was backed by the cream of Nashville musicians, including Jerry Reed and Ray Stevens! A 60-page booklet by Martin Hawkins contains the first ever retrospective of the remarkable career and amazing life of Billy Brown, based on new interviews, and many unpublished photographs! And of course the original recording of He'll Have To Go, one of the most enduring and iconic songs in country music!

This important CD fills a gap in the story of '50s and '60s music, bringing together all known recordings by a top drawer singer who never had quite the right break. Billy Brown was a rodeo performer, a hillbilly singer, a rockabilly, an unrivalled balladeer, a country gospel evangelist, and a mainstay of the central Florida music scene. He spent most of his life in the music business, usually just under the radar. He wrote many songs, recorded for the right labels, but never quite made it in his lifetime. For all that, he left a lot of music to enjoy. And the original version of He'll Have To Go, as good in its way as Jim Reeves' recording!