George Morgan Candy Kisses Are The Best Of All

George Morgan

You're The Only Good Thing (That's Happened To Me)

Born on 28. 6. 1924 in Waverly, Tennessee, raised in Ohio, died on 7. 7. 1975 in Nashville.

Country singer with 35 C&W hits between 1949 ('Candy Kisses', No. 1) and 1979 (posthumously, with daughter Lorrie: 'I'm Completely Satisfied With You'). Played from 1948 to 1956 and from 1959 in the Grand Ole Opry and had his own music show at the TV station WLAC.

From the Bear Family book - 1000 needlesticks by Bernd Matheja - BFB10025

By 1960, You're The Only Good Thing had been around the block a couple of times. In fact, this was its second time around the block for George Morgan. One of the great country love ballads, it's touching in its simplicity. The song dated back to 1953 and was written by Jack Toombs, who'd also written Morgan's 1952 hit Almost. This song would have been Toombs' annuity had he not sold it. His recording career began on Frank Innocenti's Speed Records, a label where Chuck Gregory was de facto music director. At one time or another, You're The Only Good Thing was credited to Toombs, Gregory, and Innocenti. What's certain is that Innocenti took Toombs to Excello Records where he recorded the original version of the songon January 18, 1954. Troy Martin, then working for Gene Autry's Golden West Melodies, snapped up the publishing and persuaded Autry to record it in Nashville in May 1954 with Don Law at the controls (one of the few times that Autry recorded away from Hollywood).

Autry said that he found You're The Only Good Thing when he appeared at the Nashville State Penitentiary, but he might have been confusing it with another song he acquired around the same time, Just Walking In The Rain. Toombs was a Nashville cab driver, and while it isn't out of the question that he was in the slammer, it seems likelier that Troy Martin handed the song to Autry. Billy Walker recorded it in September 1954 (again with Don Law at the controls), but then it languished until Ernest Tubb's LP version met with some success two years later. It might have been Law who remembered the song and encouraged Morgan to revive it. Morgan recorded a country version in March 1959 that didn't chart but must have done sufficiently well for Law to spring for a fully orchestrated version in December. Only then did the song become a charted hit for the first time. It has since become a minor standard and a posthumous hit for Jim Reeves. (Morgan's country version...and everything else he recorded for Columbia is on Bear Family's 'Candy Kisses' box, BCD 15851).

Various Country & Western Hit Parade 1960
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George Morgan Candy Kisses (8-CD)
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Copyright © Bear Family Records