Darrell McCall & Johnny Bush Hot Texas Country (1986)

Darrell McCall

New Yorker Larry Finneran wrote Dear One with his brother Vinnie, and sent the demo to Hy Weiss's Old Town Records, despite the fact that Old Town didn't really specialise in that sound. Weiss rush-released it under the name 'Larry Finnegan', though, and on the day that it charted, February 24, 1962, Shelby Singleton produced a cover version with his new signee, Darrell McCall. Finnegan's story is available on Bear Family ('Dear One', BCD 16275) as is the Darrell McCall story ('The Real McCall', BCD15846). Briefly, Darrell was born in New Jasper, Ohio on April 30, 1940, grew up loving country music and came to Nashville. He sung backup on sessions and on the road, and made his first recordings as a 'cover' artist for Starday. Manager Hubert Long landed a deal with Capitol in 1961, and another with Philips (the European company that had just bought Mercury). "Hubert was trying to put me in a pop singer vein," Darrell told Rich Kienzle. "This boy, Larry Finnegan, had 'Dear One' out. Hubert said, 'I think you can do this song and we'll ride it into the pop charts as well as taking it to the top in country.'" It didn't happen that way, of course. Finnegan won the day (he eventually moved to Sweden, started Svensk-American Records, and died in 1973) while Darrell became a journeyman honky tonker. His breakthrough hit, A Stranger Was Here, came in 1963.

Darrell McCall The Real McCall (5-CD)
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