"No Vacancy" | ||||
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Single by Merle Travis | ||||
B-side | "Cincinnati Lou" | |||
Released | May 1946 | |||
Recorded | March 18, 1946 [1] | |||
Studio | Radio Recorders, Los Angeles | |||
Genre | Hillbilly | |||
Length | 2:43 | |||
Label | Capitol 258 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Merle Travis, Cliffie Stone | |||
Merle Travis singles chronology | ||||
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"No Vacancy" is a song written by Merle Travis and Cliffie Stone in 1946. The best-known version of the song is Travis' own, which reached #3 on the country charts in that year. [2]
The song's lyrics tell, in first person, of a World War II veteran who returns and finds nowhere to live: "All along the line it's the same old sign waitin' for me./No Vacancy, No Vacancy"
Reportedly, "No Vacancy" got Travis his first major solo recording contract. Cliffie Stone brought the idea for the song to Travis and then brought the demo to Capitol Records after Travis wrote and recorded the song. Lee Gillette at Capitol liked the song, signed Travis, and "No Vacancy" became his first hit. [3]
The song has also been recorded by Glen Campbell (on his first album, Big Bluegrass Special (1962)) and Ricky Nelson (1966, on Bright Lights & Country Music).
Ernest Jennings Ford, known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons".
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Leon Jerry "Jack" Guthrie was an American songwriter and performer whose rewritten version of the Woody Guthrie song "Oklahoma Hills" was a hit in 1945. The two musicians were cousins.
Mary Ford was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios", which were number one hits on the Billboard charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic exploitation of American coal miners. Among his many well-known songs and recordings are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues", "I am a Pilgrim" and "Dark as a Dungeon". However, it is his unique guitar style, still called "Travis picking" by guitarists, as well as his interpretations of the rich musical traditions of his native Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, for which he is best known today. Travis picking is a syncopated style of guitar fingerpicking rooted in ragtime music in which alternating chords and bass notes are plucked by the thumb while melodies are simultaneously plucked by the index finger. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977.
"Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliffie Stone played bass on the recording. It was first released in July 1947 by Capitol on Travis's album Folk Songs of the Hills. The song became a gold record.
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Clifford Gilpin Snyder, professionally Cliffie Stone, was an American country singer, musician, record producer, music publisher, and radio and TV personality who was pivotal in the development of California's thriving country music scene after World War II during a career that lasted six decades. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.
Vacancy or No Vacancy may refer to:
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Folk Songs of the Hills is a 1947 album by American singer Merle Travis. It is a collection of traditional songs from his home of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, including original compositions evoking working life on the railroads and in the coal mines. Each song, accompanied by Travis on his own acoustic guitar, is introduced by a short narrative. Because of these characteristics, the album can be considered an early example of the concept album in popular music, along with Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads and Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours. First issued as a 78 rpm box set album in 1947, this collection has remained in print in LP and CD reissues up to the present, with additional tracks from the same period added in later editions.
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"So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed" is a 1947 song by Merle Travis, written by Travis, Eddie Kirk, and Cliffie Stone.
"Divorce Me C.O.D." is a 1946 honky-tonk song recorded by Merle Travis. One of many songs co-written by Travis and Cliffie Stone, it was Travis' first release to make it to number one on the Folk Juke Box charts where it stayed for fourteen weeks and a total of twenty-three weeks on the chart. The B-side of "Divorce Me C.O.D.," a song entitled "Missouri," peaked at number five on the same chart.
Lonesome Love is the second studio album by American country artist Jean Shepard. The album was released in December 1958 on Capitol Records and was produced by Ken Nelson. It was another album released by another central theme.
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"Cincinnati Lou" is a country music song recorded by Merle Travis and released on the Capitol label. It was co-written by Travis and Shug Fisher.
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