Country CHRISTMAS PACKAGES DECK THE HALLS Rogers /Parton, Other Superstars Pace Holiday Action Barbara Mandrell's "Christmas At of the major label holiday product BY KIP KIRBY Our House." The $8.98 album is re- consists of reissues, priced at $5.98. NASHVILLE Compilation pack- portedly up' to the quarter- million CBS has Merle Haggard's "Goin' ages and superstar releases are de- mark after two months, and may ri- Home," Chet Atkins' "Christmas fining the picture for this year's val the label's other holiday star With Chet," Willie Nelson's "Pretty Nashville Christmas product. And, package, "The Oak Ridge Boys' Paper" and Johnny Cash's "Classic as expected, it's the superstars who Christmas," now in its second sea- Christmas" -all reissues -as well are leading the sales, although holi- son. Sparrow Records' distribution as a compilation repackage titled day product continues to dwindle. wing is handling the Mandrel] al- "Christmas Greetings From Nash- RCA has already met its original bum for the Christian bookstore ville." The later album contains projection of one million copies on market. such cuts as Gene Autry's "Ru- its new $9.98 Kenny Rogers /Dolly Also new this year is RCA's third dolph The Red -Nosed Reindeer," Parton duet album, "Once Upon A package in its annual "A Country Marty Robbins' "Hark The Herald Christmas." Reorders are flowing Christmas" compilation series, be- Angels Sing," George Jones' "Jin- in, according to RCA's director of gun in 1982. Priced at $5.98, the cur- gle Bells" and Mickey Gilley's marketing Dave Wheeler, and the rent volume features Alabama, "White Christmas." label anticipates another consumer Deborah Allen, Bill Medley, the Conway Twitty's "Merry Twis- Getting Into Dirt. Members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band seem to wondering be rush following the Dec. 3 airing of Judds, Ronnie Milsap, Charley mas" remains the focal point in who the newest member of the group is following their performance on the stars' first CBS-TV special, "A Pride, Earl Thomas Conley, and Warner Bros.' Christmas line. Re- "Nashville Now." Regular viewers of the live nightly cablecast know him as host leased last year, Ralph Emery. Christmas To Remember." Waylon Jennings with Jessi Colter. the album has sold MCA has a runaway seller with Aside from these, however, most (Continued on page 42) New Novelty Hit ASHVILLE SCENE Stevens Nuts Over `Squirrel' NASHVILLE Call Ray Stevens country. The song tells the story of by Kip Kirby "squirrely" these days, and he's what happens to the congregation in- likely to laugh. It's a logical tie-in side the First Self- Righteous Church with the title of his newest record, of Pascagoula, Miss. when a squirrel PARODY IS OFTEN the sincerest formof flattery- lighting cuts from his excellently- received Sugar Hill "Mississippi Squirrel Revival," and gets loose at a revival meeting. or at least a good indicator of fame. So the Oak Ridge album, "Desert Rose." Stevens is hoping that the furry ro- The song wasn't scheduled as the Boys should be grinning ear to ear (let's see, that Hillman says he plans to spend more time next year dent may precipitate his biggest album's second release. But when would be eight ears) at Hallmark Greeting Cards' in Nashville, adding that he is scheduled to be fea- novelty hit since 1980's "Shriner's country radio discovered the cut new line of chocolate-influenced cards. The Oaks are tured on the debut of a new syndicated radio show ti- Convention." and began playing it, MCA decided referred to as "The Oak Fudge Boys." tled "Liberty Flyer" on Jan. 4. "Liberty Flyer" is a 60- Novelty records have always to rush -release it as a single. Not to be outdone, master horror novelist Stephen minute weekly program created by the producers of played a major role in Stevens' ca- The first three stations to get the King makes reference to the Oaks in his latest epic, TNN's "Fire On The Mountain" show. It will air on 75 reer. Even today, you still hear ball rolling were WNGC in Athens, "The Talisman." How come? Turns out that King country radio stations in 32 states. spoofs like "Ahab The Arab," "Gi- Ga., WSIX in Nashville, and US 99 "just likes their music" and was, in fact, listening to Sugar Hill has also dusted off an old classic record- tarzan" and "The Streak" turning in Chicago. Since then, "Mississippi one of their albums at the moment he mentions them ing from the '70s that has been out of print for several up around the radio dial. He hasn't Squirrel Revival" has become the in the book. Maybe he knew that Joe Bonsall is an fared as well as a serious perform- top request song in numerous mar- avid reader of his books. Or maybe someone told the er; so with the release of his first al- kets, according to MCA's senior vice author that Bonsall decorated the set for the Oaks' Hallmark Cards makes bum on MCA, "He Thinks He's Ray president and general manager tour book spread on him with Stephen King book jack- jokes about the Oaks Stevens," the singer is returning Bruce Hinton. ets. full -time to comedy. "l think we're seeing the tip of an Excuse the pun, but we can't resist noting that this "He Thinks He's Ray Stevens" is iceberg,' says Hinton. "In the first means the Oaks are now turning up in novel places. years. The album, "Old And In The Way," features typical tongue -in -cheek Stevens. two weeks, we sold 80,000 copies Jerry Garcia (from the Grateful Dead), David Cris- The front cover shows him posing through our Atlanta branch, includ- SO FAR, we understand Gary Morris' voice is hold- man, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements and John as Napoleon in French military ing 20,000 to Handleman and 10,000 ing up fine in his "La Boheme" role Off- Broadway. It Kahn. Sugar Hill's president Barry Poss licensed the dress; the back cover has him sit- to Bib." was recently announced that Linda Ronstadt was masters from the project's original engineer, Owsley ting astride a cannon with a team of Stevens didn't write "Mississippi cutting her original schedule of four performances Stanley, and is releasing the finished product this white- coated medical experts ad- Squirrel Revival" himself (it was per week back to three because of the demanding na- month. "Old And In The Way" might make an inter- vancing on him. He wrote or co- written by two staff writers for Ray ture of the role. Morris appears with both Ronstadt esting gift suggestion for those hard -to-please music wrote four of the songs inside; he's Stevens Music), but he predicts the and alternate female lead Patti Cohenour. There is an lovers on your list (especially if they happen to be also included a version of Paul record will re- establish him as a alternate male lead in Morris' role as well. holdovers from the '60s). Craft's undercover classic, "It's Me country music humorist. He also Manager Art Stone says that his artist is adjusting Again, Margaret." to life in the Big Apple. In fact, so well is Morris ad- HELEN CORNELIUS, who has been on the road for However, it's "Mississippi Squirrel justing that he calmly apprehended the person who the last three months with the Statlers, has been Revival" that is lighting up phones (Continued on page 42) swiped Stone's briefcase from a David's Cookies shop asked by the group to extend her tour with them into on radio request lines across the where they'd stopped in Manhattan and returned it to February. They recently appeared together at the Art within the space of about a minute and a half. MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Dolly Parton has announced that she hopes to be David Allan Coe celebrated his 10th anniversary playing the part of cosmetics mogul Mary Kaye in a with Columbia Records by doing a special benefit con- new tv movie based on the flamboyant Kaye's life. If cert in memory of the late Steve Goodman. The Nov. this becomes reality, it would curtail the length of Par- 13 concert at the Cannery in Nashville was co -spon- ton's 1985 tour with Kenny Rogers. sored by Columbia, radio station WJKZ and Cats Re- Parton also announced that she has finished her cords. It was Goodman who penned Coe's first chart comedy script for another movie she's been wanting hit, "You Never Even Called Me By My Name." (Of to make: "Brass Angels," reuniting her with "9 To 5" course, Goodman was also the author of "City of New pals Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. According to Par- Orleans. ") ton, the storyline will find all three playing middle- In addition to dedicating the Nashville benefit, aged friends who fly to Europe for adventure and are which lured more than 700 fans, to Goodman, Coe in- mistaken for spies. By film's end, says the irrespressi- tends to dedicate his next Columbia album, "Darlin', ble Dolly, the three end up "saving the world" in Darlin'," to the singer /songwriter's memory. Mean- grand James Bond fashion. She plans to fine-tune the while, Coe's performance raised more than $3,500 for script while on tour with Rogers. Dream Makers Inc., a non -profit organization that tries to fulfill the dreams of terminally ill children. SUGAR HILL RECORDS continues to accrue criti- Many of these children suffer from leukemia, the cal raves for its country catalog, and its artists have same disease that claimed Goodman's life. been busier than usual as well. Chris Hillman (for- The Judds were forced to cancel several dates when merly with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Wynonna Judd caught a viral laryngitis infection. the Souther -Hillman -Fumy Band) flew to Nashville She was flown to Nashville from Florida, where she after Thanksgiving to appear on "Nashville Now" for and her mother Naomi were performing, and hospital- the first time. He also found time to tape The Nash- ized locally for three days. All of the Judds' cancelled ville Network's concert segment program, "New dates have been rescheduled, including a Wednesday And Squirrel Makes Three. WSIX's Gerry House breaks up at the furry Country," with steel guitarist Herb Pedersen, high- (5) appearance on "Good Morning America." interruption climbing along Ray Stevens' shoulder, as they discuss the singer's return to comedy recording and his newest siigle, Mississippi Squirrel Revival."

BILLBOARD DECEMBER 8, 1984 39

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