Poplar Tunes

U.S. Male


recording date elvis: Wednesday, 17 January 1968; Studio
first release: on audio single U.S. Male ( march 1968 )
label: rca victor
catalog number: 47 9465


originally by: Jerry Reed

recording date: 9 september 1966
release date: february, 1967
originally written by: Jerry Reed
catalognumber: lsp 3756
label: rca victor
album: the unbelievable guitar & voice of jerry reed

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



Jerry Hubbard, the author, is the real name of Jerry Reed. Jerry recorded the original of his own composition, "U.S. Male," on 9 September 1966 in RCA's "Nashville Sound" studio in Nashville. The recording was released in February 1967 on his debut LP, "The Unbelievable Guitar And Voice Of Jerry Reed." Reed also wrote "Guitar Man." Both songs were big hits for Elvis.
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 thathe 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. His first top 20 hit came in 1967 with "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," a song about Elvis. He was voted Instrumentalist of The Year in 1970 by the Country Music Associatiion 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.
See also "A Thing Called Love," "Guitar Man" and "Talk About The Good Times."


U.S. Male
performed by: Jerry Reed