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Dang Me
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Wikipedia article
"'Dang Me'" is a song by American country music artist Roger Miller, and 1964's Grammy Award winner for Best Country & Western Song. It was Miller's first chart-topping country hit and first Top Ten pop music hit,Ruhlmann, William. [ AllMusic.com: "Dang Me"] and it was a novelty song whose "jazzy instrumental section" helped make it "the quintessential example of Miller's lighthearted humor, which brought him many more hits".
History
Newly signed with the Mercury Records subsidiary Smash Records, Miller gathered on January 1011, 1964, with music producer Jerry Kennedy, music arranger Bill Justis, and session musicians Ray Edenton and Harold Bradley (guitars), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano), Bob Moore (bass), and Buddy Harman (drums) at the Quonset Hut Studio on Nashville, Tennessee's Music Row.[http://www.rogermiller.com/bio2.html Roger Miller official site: Biography, page 2] On the second day, they recorded a run-through of "Dang Me", with Miller giving rehearsal direction (such as "one more time" at the end of the first chorus). The run-through was the final version released to radio. Miller, in his official biography, recalled writing the song in four minutes in a Phoenix, Arizona, hotel room. Johnny Cash in his last major interview claimed Miller wrote the song at Joshua Tree in California when Miller got out of the car with pen and paper to go write the song. Cash asked Miller what he was doing to which Miller replied "I'm writing a song. You can't come look.""#23: Roger Miller". In 'CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music'. Country Music Television. March 28, 2003.
Kennedy had already started work on many other of that session's songs before he eventually brought the recording of "Dang Me" to his home. Upon playing it, he recalled, "My kids came screaming down the stairs when 'Dang Me' came on. They thought that was the greatest thing they'd ever heard. I started playing it over and over and over again...". Kennedy and Mercury Records chose "Dang Me" as the first single of the May 1964 LP 'Roger and Out'.[http://www.lpdiscography.com/m/Miller/miller_rogerandout.htm LP Discography - Covers & Lyrics: 'Roger and Out'] The album was shortly retitled and rereleased that year as 'Dang Me' (Smash SRS-67049)
The song spent 25 weeks on the 'Billboard' country-music chart, reaching number one,[http://www.lpdiscography.com/m/Miller/miller1.htm LP Discography - Covers & Lyrics: Roger Miller] and peaked at number seven on the magazine's pop chart. It went on to appear on numerous Miller compilations. On film or tape, Miller performs it, with other songs, in the 1966 concert film 'The Big T.N.T. Show', and as part of a closing-number medley on season three, episode #21, of 'The Muppet Show' in 1979.DVD: 'The Muppet Show - The Complete Third Season' (Walt Disney Video, 2008)
Cover versions
"Dang Me" has appeared on recordings by at least eight other performers as disparate as Buck Owens and Johnny Cash on his 1999 album 'Folsom Prison Blues', Johnny Rivers recorded live in 1964 on 'Here We Go Go Again!', Sammy Davis, Jr. on the live album 'That's All' (1967), and Sweet G.A. Brown on his 'Miller Time' album in 2011. The Hollies, with Graham Nash in the band, performed it live on tour in 1968. Singer-songwriter Buddy Miller (no relation to Roger Miller) covered it on his album "Majestic Silver Strings" in 2011. Widespread Panic covered the tune as en encore during their acoustic tour on February 11, 2012.
Chart performance
References
Category:1964 singles
Category:Roger Miller songs
Category:Songs written by Roger Miller
Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Category:Song recordings produced by Jerry Kennedy
Category:1964 songs
Category:Novelty songs
Category:Smash Records singles
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