The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 33

SECTION Go ahead with fun, Aquarius! 7D Many country stars died in 1897, 3D sma Tj1 -it ARTS 'LEISURE TheTENNESSEAN TV Log, 4, 5D Comics, 60 Horoscope, 7D SATURDAY, Jaunuary 2, 1988 They all ended eade ROBERT K. OERMANN patthe Belle lub w' I ff Is Jl i imriimi -umiiMnail A 1 CATHERINE DARNELL Scene and Heard Just before midnight, it became apparent: Everyone decided Belle Meade Country Club was to be the last stop in the round of New Year's Eve parties. If there has been a bigger party at the club, we were not there to see it. The place was bursting at the seams with decked-out revelers. "This is gonna be F-U-N," Tommy Molteni promised.

He was right. It was most definitely a Shout crowd, as that was the song they danced to right before Auld Lang Syne. They knew the words to both. Hosts for the bash were Craig and Ken Adkisson, Ann and Ted Cayton, Ann Coleman, Kim and Dick Fletcher, Karin and Robert Hawkins, Douglas Joyce, Sandra and the ever-dapper Larry Lipman, Amy and Tommy McKelvey, Lynneand Stephen Sanders, Richard Wallace, Bill Armistead, Marguerite and Neal Clayton, Anne Darryl Edmonds, Beth and Steve Franklin, Adelaide and Frank Herrington, Vaden Lackey, Claire and Ric Miller, Beth and Tommy Molteni, Ellen and Hugh Tanner, and Kathy and David Webster. In the crowd were Kay and George Clark, Donna and Kevin Tucker, Jamie Carter and Keith Barksdale, Sherry and Phil Crihfield, Teresa Sims and Bob Farris, Ann Bernow and Ted Feldman, Amy and Owen Joyner, Elizabeth and Donnie Nichols, Maggie Brooks and Ken Ko-rondo, Cynthia Bain and James Powers, Julie and Johnny Hafner and Julie Erickson and Rob Parrish.

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING BMCC was where everyone ended up; however, Vanderbilt Plaza and the Eve of Janus was where many started out. Turn to PAGE 8D, Column 1 Callie Shell Staff At the stroke of midnight, Hal and Kelly I Iassall reach for a bal- TEvc of Janus Ball. The event was sponsored by the Nashville alum-loon while Melanie I lasty and Bret Moore seal it with a kiss at the nae chapter of Tri Delta. 4 Susan Stevens, one of the honorecs, pins a boutonniere on her dad, Steve Stevens, while they wait in line for Susan to be presented. Stephanie llendrix tries to convince Fred Williams to bid on a coffee table during the tve of Janus silent auction.

Nashville Notes Who were country's 1987 best? Who were the most successful country stars of 1987? Well, that depends on the folks you ask. Amusement Business has released its year-end list of the top-grossing country concerts of 1987. It is the most reliable guide to who's doing best in the live performance part of the country industry. Topping that list is Willie Nelson's FarmAid III, held last September in Lincoln, Nebraska. It grossed $1,390,000 in ticket sales.

Dozens of acts contributed to this success: In addition to Nelson the show featured John Cougar Mellencamp, Neil Young, Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kris-tof ferson and other notables. The Alabama June Jam held after Fan Fair in the country supergroup's hometown of Ft. Payne, Ala. grossed $959,004, making it No. 2 on the Amusement Business tally.

On the bill were John Schneider, Michael Johnson, Restless Heart, Carl Perkins, Petra, Sawyer Brown, The Oak Ridge Boys and others. Both of those events were for charity. At No. 3 on the list is a five-night, seven-shows stand at Atlanta's Fox Theater by Kenny Rogers and T. Graham Brown.

The Dec. 1986 shows grossed $614,188. A two-day stand at The Summit in Houston, by George Strait and Moe Bandy finished at No. 4 with a $443,774 box office gross. It was last July.

Ranking fifth is a StraitKathy Mattea bill that played two shows at the University of Texas last September. It grossed $424,556. Nashville's Varnell Enterprises was co-promoter. Other acts in the top-25 as country's biggest money-making shows for the year include Anne Murray, The Oak Ridge Boys, Hank Williams Jr. and a Waylon JenningsGeorge Jones package.

Billboard magazine combines points earned on its singles and albums charts to come up with a year-end ranking for popularity. The top 1 0 country stars it lists on this are 1. George Strait, 2. Randy Travis, 3. The Judds, 4.

Reba McEntire, 5. Hank Williams G. Alabama, 7. Dwight Yoakam, 8. Earl Thomas Conley, 9.

Restless Heart, 10. "The Trio" Dolly Parton, Linda Ron-stadt and Emmylou Harris. According to the same magazine, the top country hit singles of 1987 belonged to: 1. Michael Johnson (Give Me Wings), 2. T.G.

Sheppard (Half Past Forever), 3. Reba McEntire (Wliat Am 1 Gonna Do About You), 4. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Fi.shin' In the Dark), 5. Johnson (The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder), 6. The Judds (Cry Myself to Sleep), 7.

The Forester Sisters (You Again), 8. Ricky Van Shelton (Somebody Lied), 9. Rosanne Cash (The Way We Mafce a Broken Heart), 10. The Oak Ridge Boys (It Takes a Little Rain). At the Opry Hosts of show segments for the Grand Ole Opry are in capital letters.

The schedule is subject to change. The p.m. portion of Saturday night's show is telecast live on The Nashville Network. SATURDAY: GRANDPA JONES, The 4 Guys, Jeanne Pruett; BILL ANDERSON, Jan Howard; PORTER WAGONER, Lor-rie Morgan, Jack Greene, Riders in the Sky, Stonewall Jackson; BOXCAR WILLIE, Skeeter Davis, Justin Tubb, Johnny Russell; ROY ACUFF, Connie Smith, Roy Drusky, Crook Brothers, Melvin Sloan Dancers; HANK SNOW, Del Reeves, Jimmy C. Newman, Jean Shepard, Charlie Louvin; BILL ANDERSON, The 4 Guys, Ray Pillow, Wilma Lee Cooper, Charlie Walker; GRANDPA JONES, Jack Greene; ROY ACUFF, George Hamilton IV; PORTER Boxcar Willie; DEL'RKEVES, Carlisles, Crook ei'WelviBhmHMttcertMtaO-'w: HANK SNOWMeah wall Jackson, Riders 'in the Smith; JIMMY C.

NEW You know Dobie voice, even if you don't know his name if li wmmmMmmm mm 'i riiif! ROBERT K. OERMANN Staff Writer Whether or not you know his name, you probably know the voice of Dobie Gray. If you watched the recent Rolling Stone 20th anniversary TV special, you heard him sing his timeless rock anthem Drift Away while the credits rolled. That's Gray's unmistakable, heart-tugging tenor singing the award-winning "Mama's got the magic" Clorox ad jingle. Budweiser, Hardee's, Air Canada, Honda, Buick, Miller and other products have also employed his rich, warm vocal tones in national ad campaigns.

He's been heard on the soundtracks of such films as The Commitment, Uptown Saturday Night and Casey's Shadow. Theater buffs might recognize his voice from the more than 20 plays and musicals he's appeared in, including Hair, The Beard and The Balcony. Last year he was the black representative on the star-studded Statue of Liberty commemorative LP They Came to America. All that is in addition to the Dobie Gray radio hits that have fueled a 25-year recording career. The In Crowd (1965), Look At Me i (1963), River Deep Mountain High (1967), See You At the Go-Go (1965), -Drift Away (1973), Loving Anns (1974) and You Can Do It (1979) are -all notable Gray singles.

During the 1 980s he has been recording for the country and gospel markets and establishing himself as a hit Nashville songwriter. "I guess what you call my 'signature songs' will never die, thank God," Gray says with a chuckle. Dressed casually for a post-interview recording session, he sits in the Capitol Records office on Music Row and reflects on his multi-faceted success. "There's a movie coming out called The In Crowd, a teen movie. They wanted to use my original recording for the soundtrack, but it is hung up in some kind of litigation out there in California.

So I reproduced it for the movie. We did it here in Nashville. It came out sounding very much like the original. "I was out in California twice last year for composer arranger Mike Post, singing theme songs for TV movies. "I enjoy doing things like that.

"I just came back from Chicago. I did an ad campaign for Allstate, about 12 commercials for them for television. The McDonald's thing came through too. I'll be singing for McDLTs. I just did a jingle for Suave deodorant.

And of course there's the Clorox 'Mama's got the magic' I've got seven more of those coming out soon." Gray is heard but not seen for his commercial work. But his theatrical background gets him occasional work in front of the camera as well. "I still go out to California once in a while to audition for small parts and things. Friends out there will call and say, 'Why don't you fly out and read for I haven't lucked into anything yet that was just right for me, but I'd like to do some comedy." His most recent trip to the West Coast was because of his flourishing new career as a songwriter. "I just recently was out there working with Julio Iglesias for his new album He'd taken a song of mine called 1 Ever Needed You and really loved it.

"He asked me if I would mind doing some rewriting on it because his English is very poor. I said, 'No, not at So he flew me out there to California and I spent five days out there rewriting. "He's a very nice man, just a sweetheart of a guy. And a lot of money. Good grief, he's got his own Learjet.

When the earthquake came last fall, he just split: He can just take off whenever he wants." Gray is no stranger to the Los Angeles life. Although he's been a Nashville resident since 1 978, his music career began on the West Coast. He was born Leonard Victor Ains-worth, one of eight children in a sharecropping family near Brookshire, Texas. His mother died when he was two, so he was raised by an aunt and uncle. His primary musical influences are gospel and country.

"I was raised poor and I've never been anything else," he says. "Success never went to my head. "I went back to that Texas town year when they had our big family reunion and it hasn't changed that Peter Nash Capitol Records Dobie Gray is the only major black vocalist who calls Nashville home. His career spans ad jingles, theatrical productions, hit songwriting and movie soundtrack work, as well as country recordings like his new tore's Talkin' LP. Gray rang in the New Year entertaining at the Opry land I lotel party Thursday night.

People are giving more Scott Grigsby, the owner of Tennessee Metal Worlis, has been a Salvation Army bell-ringer during holiday seasons for a decade and a half, and this year was no exception. He was ringing a bell on a downtown street, just before Christmas, when Max York interviewed him. I've been doing this for at least 1 5 years. I do it to glorify Jesus Christ. I know this will help needy people.

I think sometimes the poorer people give most often. I suppose they have been touched by this ministry. recorded Drift Away and Loving Amis in the mid-1 970s prompted Gray's relocation to Music City. Once in the songwriting capital, he began to write, himself. In addition to Iglesias, Gray's songs have been recorded by Exile, John Denver, Tammy Wynette, Razzy Bailey, Tom Wopat and other stars.

His Jam On is the unofficial anthem of Charlie Daniels' world-renowned Volunteer Jam annual music extravaganza. "Last October I collected my first No. 1 BMI award as a writer. And that was great. Just terrific." The song was John Conlee's version of Got My Heart Set On You.

Translating country songwriting'-" success into country singing success -has proved to be more difficult. Despite near-unanimous critical acclaim country DJs virually ignored Gray's Turn to PAGt 51), Column I much. It's still a population of about 602 people; I think that's probably 300 more than when I left. "There are probably about 1 00 relatives in California and the rest are in Texas, in and around Houston. My brothers and their families, there's just too many to count." Gray went to live with relatives in California when he was a teen-ager.

He graduated from high school there in 1959 and shortly afterward was discovered by Sonny Bono. Bono got Gray his first record label contracts and the youngster began making the charts in the early 1960s. Following his early solo soul and pop hits, Gray joined the bi-racial rock group Pollution during the "psychedelic" era. The act was managed by Max Baer better known as Jethro" on The Beverly Hillbillies TV show. The success of the Nashville- I seem to see a lot of grim people on the streets these days.

I suppose they are lonely and depressed. Maybe they remember happy Christmases they can't match this year. Maybe Christmas won't be the greatest for them this year. On the other hand, last Sunday I was helping collect for Big Brothers. My group had the second, largest collection that day.

I think people are giving more Maybe people have morernoncVUn theirpockets this year. MAN, Chalrie LouviivRoV Russptl I'.