Music

Helena-West Helena honors Twitty with marker, day

Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty

Hello, darlin'! The late country singer Conway Twitty, whose career started in the '50s as part of the rockabilly boom and then led him to a string of No. 1 country tunes, is being recognized by the Arkansas town where he grew up.

Helena-West Helena Mayor Jay Hollowell has proclaimed Friday as Conway Twitty Day in the city. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has made a proclamation for June 5, the 25th anniversary of Twitty's death.

Conway Twitty Day

4:30 p.m. Friday, Courthouse Square Park, across from Phillips County Courthouse, 622 Cherry St., Helena-West Helena

Admission: Free

(870) 338-4350

deltaculturalcenter…

The unveiling of a historical marker commemorating Twitty's life and career will happen Friday at Courthouse Square Park in downtown Helena-West Helena.

Surviving members of the crooner's family, including daughter Joni Jenkins Riels; her mother and Twitty's second wife, Mickey; sons Michael Twitty and Jimmy Jenkins, as well as many extended family members and musicians who played alongside Twitty, are scheduled to attend the ceremony. Willie and the Planks, a band from Nashville, Tenn., will perform at the Southbound Tavern, 233 Cherry St., from 5:30-7 p.m. and Twitty merchandise will be for sale at Handworks, 227 Cherry St.

"We're so excited and proud," says Riels from her home in Hendersonville, Tenn. "It has grown into something really special."

Twitty was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins in Friars Point, Miss., across the river from Helena. His family moved to Helena when he was a child and he started his first band, The Phillips County Ramblers, when he was just 10 years old. During his teens he had a weekly show on Helena radio station KFFA, the home of the King Biscuit Time blues program. He was also honing his skills on the baseball diamond and was offered a contract by the Philadelphia Phillies organization. The Army came first, though, as Twitty was drafted and stationed in Japan.

By the time he left the Army in the mid '50s, rock 'n' roll was in full swing and he went to Memphis, where he recorded Elvis Presley-inspired sides for Sun Records that were never released, although label mate Roy Orbison did put out a driving version of Twitty's song "Rock House." It was also while at Sun that he took the stage name Conway Twitty, inspired by the cities of Conway and Twitty, Texas.

In 1958, Twitty's career blew up. Recording for MGM, his spine-chilling version of "It's Only Make Believe" -- a brief but wrenching ballad that combined Twitty's soaring vocal with Presley's cool and Orbison's ghostly heartache -- became his first No. 1 Billboard hit and sold 8 million copies.

It was actually his only No. 1 on the rock charts. By the mid-'60s, Twitty was making country music for MCA/Decca and "Next in Line," released in 1968, became his first country No. 1. It was the first of more than 50 chart toppers that included many of his own compositions, such as his signature song, "Hello, Darlin.'"

West Helena and nearby Marianna in Lee County, where his second wife, Mickey, was from, were home base for the family at the early part of his career, Riels says.

"We had a house on Fourth Street, I believe, and we lived there for a time in the early '60s. I went to kindergarten and first grade there."

They eventually moved to Oklahoma, but returned to Helena and Marianna often.

"That was our home. Arkansas was where we would come back for that feeling of security," says Riels, who was 17 when she sang with her father on the 1975 No. 1 hit "Don't Cry Joni," which led to her own recording career.

The song was actually part of the household soundtrack for years.

"We just sang it around the house and we never thought anything about it," she says.

Riels remembers seeing her father at work writing songs: "He would write a song in 20 minutes. When an idea came to him, it usually flowed quickly. It was crazy. Then he would start singing it for us and ask, 'What do y'all think of this?' We were his sounding board. He would try them out on us."

Thomas Jacques, assistant director of the Delta Cultural Center, which is co-hosting Friday's events with the Helena-West Helena Advertising and Promotion Commission, says Twitty deserves a nod for his ability to meld different strains of music together.

"Conway is not always recognized for being a transitional artist and bridging genres," Jacques says, adding that while Twitty combined rockabilly and country early in his career, he later injected elements of R&B and Southern soul into country music.

"When you see what he did with a pop song like 'The Rose' or an R&B song like 'Slow Hand,' Conway is bringing that over to a country audience with very much a soul element to it."

Twitty died on June 5, 1993, from an abdominal aneurysm. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Helena-West Helena's recognition of Twitty is part of a broader effort by the town to further celebrate the region's musical history and culture.

"Conway was a natural performer to kick this off," says Jacques, who also hosts the King Biscuit Time radio show. "The area has done a good job focusing on blues performers and King Biscuit Time, and we will have a larger role in looking not only at the blues, but at the region's rockabilly and country history and, hopefully, other genres."

photo

Conway Twitty poster

Weekend on 05/31/2018

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