It is here where you have an opportunity to read ‘Kent Westberry: Songs To Write’, an article written by Jim Newcombe, which was published in the March 2021 issue of Country Music People.
KENT WESTBERRY
‘Songs To Write’
As the writer of Gene Watson’s ‘Love In The Hot Afternoon‘, Kent Westberry deserves legendary status.
Then there are the other 400+ songs he’s had cut that include ‘Memory Maker’ by Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) (No.3, 1972), Carl Belew’s ‘Hello Out There’ (No.8, 1962), and Wanda Jackson’s ‘Funnel of Love’ (co-written with Charlie McCoy).
On Monday 10 April 1961, Wanda Jackson recorded Kent Westberry‘s ‘Funnel of Love’ (co-written with Charlie McCoy); the track was subsequently included on ‘Heart Trouble’ (CMH Records, 2003).
Cyndi Lauper recorded Kent Westberry‘s ‘Funnel of Love’ (co-written with Charlie McCoy) and included the track on ‘Detour’ (Sire Records / Rhino Records / Atlantic Records, 2016).
With his own story just published – ‘I’ve Got A Song To Write’ (Dorrance Publishing, 2021) – looking back at 60 years as a songwriter, singer, producer and entertainer, Jim Newcombe recalls an evening in the company of the Florida-born songwriter in his house just outside Nashville.
Born in Miami, Florida in 1939, Kent Westberry was typical of teenage country musicians of the day who had to adapt to the onslaught of rock’n’roll. ‘I loved country music the best’, he recalls, ‘but then in Miami at that time you couldn’t get a job playing country music. We started learning a lot of the rock’n’roll stuff. I liked Buddy Holly (Monday 7 September 1936 – Tuesday 3 February 1959) and Eddie Cochran (Monday 3 October 1938 – Sunday 17 April 1960), they were my heroes, and Carl Perkins (Saturday 9 April 1932 – Monday 19 January 1998).
With a band having built a local following in Miami, Westberry’s dad called the top DJ responsible for bringing country acts down to Florida at the time, Cracker Jim Brooker. He managed to get an audition slot for his son. Determined to make a good impression Westberry remembers turning up ‘dressed up in my rhinestone suit’. Impressed, the DJ signed them to a management contract and, as well as club dates, had the band performing on the back of flatbed trucks at shopping centres.
Later he got them the TV show. ‘We had different acts, a variety show’, reflects Westberry. ‘I had my own square dancers. When he would bring the stars down to the Dade County Auditorium, he’d have them come over and do my TV show’.
Kent cut a couple of records for local label Art Records (‘My Baby Don’t Rock Me Now’ – a bluesy echo laden effort, and ‘Popcorn & Candy Bar’), but it was a meeting with country superstar Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) while opening a Philip Morris Country Music show that was to pay dividends later on. Tillis told him to look him up if he ever got to Nashville and when Westberry, who had been writing songs since high school, headed to Music City in 1960 with friends Snuffy Smith and Wayne Gray, the country music scene was once again booming. It was a Nashville in need of more singers and more songs.
Staying at the YMCA, one day they bumped into Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017), who took Kent to meet Jim Denny and urged Jim to sign Kent as a writer. Mel ended up cutting eighteen of Kent’s songs.
The first cut Kent had, however, was by Billy Grammer (Friday 28 August 1925 – Wednesday 10 August 2011), ‘Loveland’ (written by Kent Westberry and Billy Grammer) was recorded for Monument Records in 1959, and then Billy Walker (Monday 14 January 1929 – Sunday 21 May 2006) cut ‘I Changed My Mind’; this latter track, which was included on Billy Walker’s ‘Too Many Memories’ (MGM Records, 1974), reached No.39 on the Billboard country music singles chart in 1974.
It was ‘Airmail To Heaven’ by Carl Smith (Tuesday 15 March 1927 – Saturday 16 January 2010) that got him his first chart success with the tearjerker hitting No.11 in 1962; the track was subsequently included on Carl Smith’s ‘Tall, Tall Gentleman’ (Columbia Records, 1963).
‘Jim Denny got us a recording contract with MGM on which we had one release called ‘Kent & Snuffy’. We had done an Everly Brothers thing, ‘Bye Bye Buddy’, then we ran out of money and went home’.
Back in Florida, he formed a new band with Charlie McCoy (with whom he would later pen ‘Funnel of Love’) on lead guitar, Jim Isabel on drums and Snuffy and Kent. They had brought Charlie back with them and he was helping on demos and then, ‘Cadence Records wanted to sign Charlie as an artist’, he brings to mind, ‘so Charlie and I sat down and wrote a song called ‘Cherry Berry Wine’, which was Charlie’s first hit in the pop field’.
In 1961, Charlie McCoy recorded ‘Cherry Berry Wine’ (written by Charlie McCoy), which reached No.99 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music singles chart in 1961.
Being a Cedarwood writer gave Kent access to their other writing staff and this led to a collaboration with Marijohn Wilkin (Wednesday 14 July 1920 – Saturday 28 October 2006).
‘Marijohn and I wrote one that was the follow up to ‘100 Pounds of Clay’. Remember Eugene Booker McDaniels (Tuesday 12 February 1935 – Friday 29 July 2011)? We had the follow up, ‘She’s Come Back’ (a non-album track in 1961).
Carl Robert Belew (Tuesday 21 April 1931 – Wednesday 31 October 1990) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Hello Out There’ and included the track on ‘Hello Out There’ (RCA Victor Records, 1964); the track reached No.8 on the Billboard country music singles chart in 1962.
Then I had ‘Hello Out There’, a Carl Robert Belew (Tuesday 21 April 1931 – Wednesday 31 October 1990) recording. Carl had a country hit (No.8, 1962), and Nick Noble (Monday 21 June 1926 – Saturday 24 March 2012) recorded the pop version (reached the WLS Top 15 in 1962), so all these were in the charts close about the same time’.
Kent started working with Carl Perkins (Saturday 9 April 1932 – Monday 19 January 1998) late in 1960, but got drafted in 1962 and shipped overseas to Germany. ‘Carl just loved rhythm guitars, he just loved open old rhythm. We were sitting backstage at The Golden Nugget’, Westberry laughs, ‘and Carl used to carry a can of hair spray and a can of blue suede spray for his shoes. One night, he mixed them up and took the blue suede spray and sprayed it all over his hair. He said, ‘My God, what am I gonna do?’ Well, you couldn’t notice it that much, and he went on stage that way’.
Another Perkins memory was how Carl had bought a portable record player and the Warren Smith LP on Liberty. Smith, of course, had been on Sun Records too. ‘We’d put that Warren Smith album on and just wear it out. Carl just loved that album, in fact he liked Ralph Mooney’s playing so much he went out and rigged up a rod that went down the neck of his guitar, so he could play pedal style by pressing the rod with his thumb’
Ann-Margret recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, which was co-written with Marijohn Wilkin (Wednesday 14 July 1920 – Saturday 28 October 2006) and included the track on ‘On The Way Up’ (RCA Victor Records, 1962); the track reached No.17 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music singles chart in 1961.
Following two years in the army, Kent reflects, ‘When I got out, Ann-Margret had recorded ‘I Just Don’t Understand’ (with Charlie McCoy on harmonica) and had a hit on that. I was writing songs all the time and sending them back.
Then I was lucky enough to get the flipside of Wanda Jackon’s ‘Right Or Wrong’ (No.9, 1961). It was called ‘Funnel of Love’ (written by Kent Westberry and Charlie McCoy), so then I started having quite a few songs out’.
As well as writing, Westberry took a few jobs working with various acts. One was with Johnny Ferguson, who had a hit with a John D. Loudermilk (Saturday 31 March 1934 – Wednesday 21 September 2016) song, ‘Angela Jones’.
Kent went on a gig with him, Snuffy, and Charlie McCoy on drums, to play the Edison Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Only thing was Johnny only knew four songs, and so, after two nights they were fired.
His old friend, Wayne Gray, was playing guitar for Tex Ritter (Thursday 12 January 1905 – Wednesday 2 January 1974) and got Kent a job with Tex playing rhythm guitar. One night, he remembers well. ‘Oh gee, I remember Faron Young (Thursday 25 February 1932 – Tuesday 10 December 1996) was on it, Buck Owens (Monday 12 August 1929 – Saturday 25 March 2006), Jan Howard (Friday 13 March 1929 – Saturday 28 March 2020), The Wilburn Brothers – Doyle Wilburn (Monday 7 July 1930 – Saturday 16 October 1982) and Teddy Wilburn (Monday 30 November 1931 – Monday 24 November 2003)…it was up there in Chicago, I can remember Tex coming backstage and he said, ‘Tonight you start playing bass’‘
Kent had never played bass and told Tex he couldn’t do it, but they gave him a bass and, after this shaky start, he ended up playing bass for Tex for the next three years.
Carl Perkins (Saturday 9 April 1932 – Monday 19 January 1998) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘The Star of The show’, which was co-written with Benny Joy (Tuesday 5 November 1935 – Monday 24 October 1988), and included the track on ‘Country Boy’s Dream’ (Dollie Records, 1967).
Another Florida boy who had started out doing rockabilly was Benny Joy (Tuesday 5 November 1935 – Monday 24 October 1988), whose name was listed as a writer on a couple of Charlie Rich’s RCA cuts, and whom Kent remembers being ‘a nice guy’. Co-writing a song called ‘The Star of The Show’ that was cut by Carl Perkins (Saturday 9 April 1932 – Monday 19 January 1998), Westberry explains how the lyrics, which begin, ‘The star of the show won’t be on tonight’, refer to Hank Williams (Monday 17 September 1923 – Thursday 1 January 1953). ‘That’s the idea we had on there originally, Benny and I. The first time I ran into Benny was in 1964 or 1965. I was still writing for Cedarwood. Benny was already signed to Cedarwood, so Benny and I teamed up. We wrote eighteen songs and seventeen of them got recorded’.
Faron Young (Thursday 25 February 1932 – Tuesday 10 December 1996) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘You Don’t Treat Me Right’ and included the track on ‘Unmitigated Gall’ (Mercury Records, 1967); the track was released as a single in 1966, but it did not chart.
Among those songs were ‘You Don’t Treat Me Right’, which was recorded by Faron Young (Thursday 25 February 1932 – Tuesday 10 December 1996), ‘Big Old Old Ugly Fool’, which was recorded by Red Sovine (Wednesday 17 July 1918 – Friday 4 April 1980), ‘Help Me Up, Darling’, which was recorded by Merle Kilgore (Thursday 9 August 1934 – Sunday 6 February 2005), and ‘I Don’t Need You Anymore’, which was recorded by Anita Carter (Friday 31 March 1933 – Thursday 29 July 1999), but Westberry adds, ‘Towards the end of the 1960s, everybody quite Cedarwood when Billy Denny took over after John Denny dies. Bill didn’t really like the music business anyway and nobody got along with him real well’
Also signed to Cedarwood publishing at the same time as Kent was Wayne Walker, ‘Wayne and I wrote ‘Hello Out There’ together. Wayne was what they called ‘a singer’s singer’. He was such a great singer, but never could get a hit record, but singers would love to get his demos. Ray Price (Tuesday 12 January 1926 – Monday 16 December 2013) loved his singing and he cut just about everything Wayne brought over there like ‘Pride’ (No.5, 1962) and all those good Ray Price (Tuesday 12 January 1926 – Monday 16 December 2013) things Wayne wrote, ‘Burning Memories’ (No.2, 1964), and ‘I’ve Got A New Heartache’ (No.2, 1956).
Wayne was more like a creative business man, he was a nice fella, but he was the coat and tie person.. I’ve got acetates in the corner full of Wayne Walker stuff. He had a great voice. He wrote ‘Are You Sincere’ and lost about twenty-five percent of it in a poker game. He was playing with Lucky Moeller’
Kent also shared that Wayne’s nickname at Cedarwood was `Fluffo’ and Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) was called ‘Flutterlips’. Kent meanwhile was ‘The Rocker’.
Kent married singer Dale Turner who had recorded for Columbia Records (‘False Eyelashes’) and been on The Jimmy Dean show. She has also been a friend of Patsy Cline’s.
‘Charlie Dick [Patsy’s husband] and I ran around for a while’, he recalled. ‘Back in 1961 I guess we used to run around Tootsies all the time. I think everybody went there, I met Mitt Miller there, I met Burl Ives (Monday 14 June 1909 – Friday 14 April 1995)…You never knew who you were gonna meet there’
With such an extensive catalogue of songs to his name, Westberry says, ‘I think the proudest I was of any particular record was I had a Bob Wills () single, that’s quite neat. A thing called ‘She Won’t Let Me Forget Her’. I had a Kitty Wells (Saturday 30 August 1919 – Monday 16 July 2012) cut, and an Ernest Tubb (Monday 9 February 1914 – Thursday 6 September 1984) cut.
Ernest Tubb (Monday 9 February 1914 – Thursday 6 September 1984) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Be Glad’, which was co-written with Justin Tubb (Tuesday 20 August 1935 – Saturday 24 January 1998), and included the track on ‘A Good Year For The Wine’ (Decca Records, 1970).
Del Reeves (Thursday 14 July 1932 – Monday 1 January 2007) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Be Glad’, which was co-written with Justin Tubb (Tuesday 20 August 1935 – Saturday 24 January 1998), and included the track on ‘Down At The Good Time Charlie’s’ (United Artists Records, 1969); the track reached No.5 on the Billboard country music singles chart in 1969).
Justin Tubb (Tuesday 20 August 1935 – Saturday 24 January 1998) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Be Glad’ (co-written with Justin Tubb), and included the track on ‘Travelin’ Singin’ Man’ (Cutlass Records, 1972).
Ernest did one, that was a hit for Del Reeves (Thursday 14 July 1932 – Monday 1 January 2007) called ‘Be Glad’ (No.5, 1969). Ernest did it, and Justin Tubb (Tuesday 20 August 1935 – Saturday 24 January 1998) did it. Justin and I wrote that together’.
Ann-Margret recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, which was co-written with Marijohn Wilkin (Wednesday 14 July 1920 – Saturday 28 October 2006), and included the track on ‘On The Way Up’ (RCA Victor Records, 1962); the track reached No.17 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music singles chart in 1961.
Jerry Reed (Saturday 20 March 1937 – Monday 1 September 2008) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘I Just Don’t Understand’, which was co-written with Marijohn Wilkin (Wednesday 14 July 1920 – Saturday 28 October 2006), and included the track on ‘Hot A’Mighty’ (RCA Victor Records, 1972).
His biggest song though he reckons Is, ‘Probably ‘I Just Don’t Understand’. It was cut by Ann-Margret, Les Paul and Mary Ford had a single on it, Jerry Reed (Saturday 20 March 1937 – Monday 1 September 2008) did it in an album. It’s been cut by ten or eleven ‘Beatle-type’ groups in Sweden, England…Tommy Roe cut it.
Porter Wagoner (Friday 12 August 1927 – Sunday 28 October 2007) & Dolly Parton recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Sorrow’s Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)’, which was co-written with Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017), and included the track on ‘Just Between You & Me’ (RCA Victor Records, 1968).
Skeeter Davis (Wednesday 30 December 1931 – Sunday 19 September 2004) & Porter Wagoner (Friday 12 August 1927 – Sunday 28 October 2007) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Sorrow’s Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)’, which was co-written with Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017), and included the track on ‘Skeeter Davis & Porter Wagoner Sing Duets’ (RCA Records, 1962).
Stonewall Jackson (Sunday 6 November 1932 – Saturday 4 December 2021) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Sorrow’s Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)’, which was co-written with Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017), and included the track on ‘The Sadness In A Song’ (Columbia Records, 1962).
Little Jimmy Dickens (Sunday 19 December 1920 – Friday 2 January 2015) recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Sorrow’s Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)’, which was co-written with Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017), and included the track on ‘Handle with Care’ (Columbia Records, 1965).
Mel and I wrote ‘Sorrow’s Tearing Down The House (That Happiness Once Built)’ and that was cut by about six artists. Porter and Dolly cut it, Skeeter Davis (Wednesday 30 December 1931 – Sunday 19 September 2004) and Porter did it [they did it first]. Stonewall Jackson (Sunday 6 November 1932 – Saturday 4 December 2021) did it, Little Jimmy Dickens (Sunday 19 December 1920 – Friday 2 January 2015). It’s been on a ton of albums’
Gene Watson recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Love In The Hot Afternoon’, which was co-written with Vincent Wesley Matthews (1940 – Saturday 22 November 2003), and included the track on his debut album, ‘Love in the Hot Afternoon‘ (Capitol Records, 1975); the track reached No.5 on the Billboard country music singles chart in 1975.
However, despite the success, there is a trace of bitterness in Westberry when it comes to recognition for his work. ‘Awards…’ he shrugs. ‘I’ve got just three BMI awards. ‘Hello Out There’, ‘Love in the Hot Afternoon‘ and ‘Memory Maker’. ‘Be Glad’ went to number five for Del Reeves (Thursday 14 July 1932 – Monday 1 January 2007) and I never got a BMI award, that’s amazing’, he says with some incredulity.
The one singer he highlights as missing from his CV is Johnny Cash (Friday 26 February 1932 – Friday 12 September 2003). A little despondently he says, ‘Johnny Cash never cut one. I just was never connected with Johnny. We worked for about a year and a half, Tex was a member of the Johnny Cash package show, and we travelled with them. Luther Perkins (Sunday 8 January 1928 Monday 5 August 1968) was probably one of my best friends, in fact every time we’d get somewhere, Luther would always take his own little camper, and when we’d get to a place, me and Luther would get together and go in his trailer and pick and sing together and have a good time’.
Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) & Sherry Bryce recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Mr. Right & Mrs. Wrong’ and included the track on ‘Let’s Go All The Way Tonight’ (MGM Records, 1974); the track reached No.32 on the Billboard country music singles chart in 1975.
But as well as placing songs with some mighty big hitters, Kent also recorded himself from time to time, as well as moving into production. ‘We got in with a guy who formed a label called Willex Records. I produced all the acts on Willex, and I produced Max D Barnes’ (Friday 24 July 1936 – Sunday 11 January 2004) first stuff. We signed my wife, Dale, to the label and she had three records for us. I recorded a couple, ‘One More Day’, and in fact Dale and I did a duet called ‘Mr Right & Mrs Wrong’. Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) covered the song [with Sherry Bryce], of course they had the hit (No.32, 1975)’.
Pitching songs in his heyday, Westberry recollects, ‘Back then it was…back then, you had great song men, all the good old song producers could ‘hear a hit’. You didn’t have to have a full arrangement, just a guitar and walk in an office and play a song. Back then, your big song men were Ken Nelson (), Paul Cohen (), Owen Bradley () and Chet Atkins (). These people, you could go in there and couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket and they could hear a hit’.
Cyndi Lauper recorded Kent Westberry’s ‘Funnel of Love’ (co-written with Charlie McCoy) and included the track on ‘Detour’ (Sire Records / Rhino Records / Atlantic Records, 2016); the track was originally recorded by Wanda Jackson on Monday 10 April 1961, and was subsequently included on Wanda Jackson’s ‘Heart Trouble’ (CMH Records, 2003).
It had been his meeting with Mel Tillis (Monday 8 August 1932 – Sunday 19 November 2017) that had proved to be Kent Westberry’s big break, and around 1982 Kent started his own publishing company called Memory Maker. ‘After the big hit I had with Mel (No.3 in 1974), and then Mel bought my catalogue and signed me again as a writer for Tillis Tunes, so I wrote for him again for a couple of years’, but more recently he received a nice payday when Cyndi Lauper covered ‘Funnel of Love’ (written by Keny Westberry and Charlie McCoy) on her ‘Detour’ (Sire Records / Rhino Records / Atlantic Records, 2016) album almost sixty years after he wrote it.
At the end of his book, Kent Westberry asks to be excused as he has ‘a song to write’. We should probably leave him to it.
The ‘Kent Westberry: Songs To Write’ article, which was written by Jim Newcombe, and was published in the March 2021 issue of Country Music People, was reproduced on Gene Watson’s Fan Site with the kind permission of Country Music People.
On Tuesday 9 October 2007, Kent Westberry graciously contributed a ‘Peer’s Quote’ about Gene Watson.