From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Apr 3, 2002  12:30 am   - UPDATED 6 JANUARY 2004
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Don Gibson
 
DON GIBSON (By Shaun Mather)

Born Donald Eugene Gibson, 3 April 1928, Shelby, North Carolina
Died 17 November 2003, Nashville, TN

Country singer / songwriter / guitarist.
His song-writing skills together with his classic pop-country songs of the
50's and 60's have ensured that Don Gibson will forever be remembered a
genius of the genre. He kicked his career off with a stint on the Tennessee
Barn Dance in Knoxville and by the 50's had secured a song-writing contract
with Fred Rose, and a record deal with first Columbia, then MGM, for whom he
hit with his own composition Sweet Dreams. In 1957 he moved to RCA, where
he commenced a fruitful partnership with producer/guitarist Chet Atkins.
Over the next five years the hits were massive, Oh Lonesome Me (# 1, also
# 7 pop), I Can't Stop Lovin' You (# 7) , Blue Blue Day (# 1), Just One Time (#
2), Sea of Heartbreak (# 2), Lonesome Number One (# 2), etc.

By the late '60s he'd developed a worrying addiction to drink and drugs.
The hits got smaller but had lost none of the quality (Yes, I'm Hurting,
Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings). At the beginning of the next decade he
switched to Hickory Records and in 1971 hit with Country Green followed a
year later by is last number one, Woman (Sensuous Woman). The remainder of
the decade saw minor hits, including some duets with Sue Thompson. Altogether
he had 65 entries in the Billboard country charts, 1956-1979. Today he lives in
retirement, shunning the limelight.

Recommended listening:
The Singer, the Songwriter (1949-1960) - Bear Family (4CD)
A Legend in My Time - Bear Family (a great overview and has Sea Of
Heartbreak that is outwith the boundary of the above box-set).