Poplar Tunes

Guitar Man


recording date elvis: Sunday 10 september ( 1967 ) ; studio
first release: on audio album clambake ( november 1967 )
label: rca victor
catalog number: lsp 3893

originally by: Jerry Reed


recording year: 10 october,1966
originally written by: hubbard
catalognumber: lpm 3756
label: rca victor
album: the unbelievable guitar & voice of jerry reed ( february 1967 )

Real name: Jerry Reed Hubbard
Born: March 20, 1937
Died: August 31, 2008
Country: United States



Jerry Reed and Jerry Hubbard (composer) are one and the same — Hubbard is the real name. Jerry was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1937. He started to play guitar at age eight and was particularly inspired by Merle Travis's "I Am A Pilgrim." He started recording for Capitol in 1955, but with little success, so that he left the company in 1958. By 1961, Jerry had completed his miltary service (1959 to 1961), during which he played as a member of the army's Circle-A Wranglers band, and had developed his "claw style" method of guitar playing. After a brief and unsuccessful time with Columbia Records, Reed signed with RCA. He recorded the original version of "Guitar Man" on 10 October, 1966 and it appeared on his 1967 LP, "The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed" (LSP-3756). His first top 20 hit also came in 1967 with "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," a song about Elvis. He was voted Instrumentalist of The Year in 1970 by the Country Music Association and won a Grammy for the number "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971. He won two other Grammy awards, together with Chet Atkins, one in 1970 and the other in 1992. In the mid-1970s he began acting in films such as "Smokey And The Bandit" and enjoyed occasional parts for the rest of his life. Jerry Reed died in September 2008. Jerry played guitar on Elvis's recording of "Guitar Man." See also "A Thing Called Love," "U.S. Male" and "Talk About The Good Times."



Guitar Man
performed by: Jerry Reed