Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan

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In the music business, if you have to get beat, you want to get beat by The Beatles.  Lefty Frizzell wrote so many songs that he had 4 of them listed in the Top Ten at the same time.  That record lasted until The Beatles passed him with five on the chart at the same time.

As far as I can tell, nobody else has done it.

Lefty Frizzell made it sound easy with his relaxed vocal style.  That style influenced singers as diverse as Roy Orbison, George Jones, and John Fogerty.  While he got his start playing Honkey Tonks (and toured with Hank Williams, Sr.), he had a number of songs cross over to the pop charts.

This was probably the biggest, and got him a Grammy nomination.  Interestingly, it was one of the few hits that he didn't write.  Sadly, he was one of the many country stars that drank himself into an early grave.  You wonder what songs he might have written had he won his battle with the bottle.



Saginaw, Michigan (Songwriters: Bill Anderson, Don Wayne)

I was born in Saginaw, Michigan.
I grew up in a house on Saginaw Bay.
My dad was a poor hard working Saginaw fisherman:
Too many times he came home with too little pay.

I loved a girl in Saginaw, Michigan.
The daughter of a wealthy, wealthy man.
But he called me: "That son of a Saginaw fisherman."
And not good enough to claim his daughter's hand.

Now I'm up here in Alaska looking around for gold.
Like a crazy fool I'm a digging in this frozen ground, so cold.
But with each new day I pray I'll strike it rich and then,
I'll go back home and claim my love in Saginaw, Michigan.

I wrote my love in Saginaw, Michigan.
I said: "Honey, I'm a coming home, please wait for me.
"And you can tell your dad, I'm coming back a richer man
"I've hit the biggest strike in Klondyke history."

Her dad met me in Saginaw, Michigan.
He gave me a great big party with champagne.
Then he said: "Son, you're wise, young ambitious man.
"Will you sell your father-in-law your Klondyke claim?"

Now he's up there in Alaska digging in the cold, cold ground.
The greedy fool is a looking for the gold I never found.
It serves him right and no-one here is missing him.
Least of all the newly-weds of Saginaw, Michigan.

We're the happiest man and wife in Saginaw, Michigan.
He's ashamed to show his face in Saginaw, Michigan.