From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Jan 23, 2003  2:56 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Joe Dowell
 
JOE DOWELL (By Phil Davies)

Born Joseph Dowell, 23rd January 1940, Bloomington, Indiana.

His father was an executive with the Boy Scouts of America and moved to
Bloomington, Indiana, a year after Joe was born. Joe bought a $10 guitar
and wrote his first song Tell Me when he was 13 years old. In later years
he took part in talent contests singing songs like Unchained Melody. He
studied Radio & TV at the University of Illinois and just before his 21st
birthday decided to try his luck in Nashville. He borrowed a pal's VW,
drove to Tennessee and rented a room at the YMCA.
On his last day there he went to the offices of Opry stars the Wilburn
Brothers, they liked his voice and introduced him to Shelby Singleton Jnr,
of Mercury Records, who had an adjoining office. He liked Joe's voice and
his clean cut Kennedyesque looks. Shelby signed him to signed to Smash
Records (a Mercury subsidiary).
Joe returned to his studies and came back by train to record in Nashville in
May 61. Shelby had noted the success of Elvis' Wooden Heart in the UK
and European charts, noting that Gus Backus' version was also a hit in
Germany. Whilst the G I Blues lp was in the US charts, RCA had issued
Elvis' version of the Chuck Willis classic I Feel So Bad as his current 45.

Shelby decided to get a cover of Wooden Heart (Muss I Denn) out quickly.
On the session he used a bass guitar and organ (played by Jerry Kennedy
and Ray Stevens) instead of tuba and accordion. When Joe reached the
11 am session he was told that he had three hours to learn the song and
the German section as well!
A man named Ed Wilson taught him the German phonetically and Joe had
no idea what he was singing.The single came out in three days and Joe went
on a barnstorming promotional tour. This helped win the battle over four other
versions, Gus Backus' version stalled just outside the hot 100. RCA didn't
release the Elvis version on 45 in the US until 64, when it was too late to
compete with the British invasion.
Joe's entered the charts at 98 on June 26 and was number one on August 28th
1961 in the US . The main reason for this was that Elvis Presley's original
was only available in Europe. After two other US hits, The Bridge Of Love
and Little Red Rented Rowboat Joe went into advertising after completing
his degree, writing jingles and commercials, he had his own radio show in
Illinois.
I once bought the Joe Dowell Wooden Heart lp at a car boot sale, extremely
bland teen pop. Not recommended.

*Wooden Heart was adapted from an old German folk/children's song by Bert
Kaempfert (who also had a US number 1 with Wonderland By Night in Jan 61),
his name appears on Joe's version along with Kay Twomey, Fred Wise and Ben
Wiseman (last two wrote a lot of stuff for Elvis). Ral Donner ( Girl Of My
Best Friend) and Wanda Jackson (Let's Have A Party) covered Elvis songs
successfully as did Terry Stafford later in 64 ( Suspicion).