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Dave Dudley (May 3, 1928 – December 22, 2003) was an American country music singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his somewhat-slurred bass. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road", and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues", "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", and "Me and Ol' C.B.". His other recordings include a duet with Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking", and his own top-10 hit, "Fireball Rolled a Seven", supposedly based on the career and death of Fireball Roberts.
While he fell in love with music, baseball was his first love and in highschool he was a standout pitcher. In 1942, the New York Yankees obtained his option. At the time, he was serving in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific, having convinced his mother to sign his enlistment papers when he was 17. She also signed the baseball option on his behalf. After his military service, his contract was transferred to the Chicago White Sox organization, In April 1948, the White Sox assigned him to their Wisconsin Rapids affiliate for spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas and was later transferred him to the Gainesville Owls of the Big State League in Texas. Soon after an arm injury ended his baseball career, he dropped by WTMT in Wausau, Wisconsin and began hosting his, "Texas Stranger Show.", playing Country Western music while also performing on air.
In early 1951, Dudley began performing in taverns across northeastern Wisconsin, usually as part of a trio that worked under a variety of names and lineups. They were billed at different times as Dave Dudley and His Rodeo Riders and Dave Dudley and His Country Caravan before eventually settling on The Dave Dudley Trio.
That May, the group began an 18-week residency at The Flame in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they performed mostly country-western songs alongside a few numbers from the Hawaiian songbook each night.
By May 1952, they had recorded their first single, “Nashville Blues” backed with “You Don’t Care,” a 78 rpm disc released on Pfau Records of Milwaukee,
Dudley continued playing tavern residencies and gradually built a local following. In March 1953, he appeared on WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, which further boosted his popularity.
In 1955, Dudley signed with King Records, a Cincinnati label recognized for its roster of country, R&B, and early rock ’n’ roll artists. Over the next two years, King released three of his 45 rpm singles. In 1959, National Recording Corporation released his single, "Where's There's a Will"
In 1960, Dudley moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he started performing under the billing, Dave Dudley and the Country Gentlemen. He also began hosting his own radio show again, this time on KEVE in Minneapolis. On December 3, 1960, while packing away his guitar after a performance, he was seriously injured when struck by a car. Following a lengthy recovery, Dudley returned to performing and reached the Top 40 county charts for the first time with “Maybe I Do” in 1961 and “Under Cover of the Night” in 1962.
"It's amazing to hear the record was selling 10,000 copies a day," Dudley later recalled to the Nevada State Journal in 1973. "It's also amazing how many companies will offer you a contract that wouldn't before."
The success of “Six Days on the Road” led to a recording contract with Mercury Records and by the end of 1963, he released his first single from the label, "Last Day in the Mines". Dudley scored more big hits in the 1960s, including "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", "Trucker's Prayer", and "Anything Leaving Town Today". "Six Days on the Road" was subsequently recorded by several other artists, including George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Steve Earle, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Sawyer Brown.
Dudley continued to have success into the 1970s, while continuing to record for Mercury Records. He had some country top 10s in the 1970s, including "Comin' Down" and "Fly Away Again". By the late 1970s, his success on the charts was beginning to fade, although Dudley amassed 33 top-40 country hits.
In 1978, Dudley's name became known to the audience in Germany after the German country band Truck Stop had a single top-10 hit in Germany, titled " Ich möcht’ so gern Dave Dudley hör’n" ("I would like to listen to Dave Dudley so much,".
In total, Dudley recorded more than 70 albums, but he did not manage to reclaim his past success, and neither his single "Where's That Truck?", recorded with disc jockey Charlie Douglas, nor the track "Dave Dudley, American Trucker", recorded in 2002 in the wake of the September 11 attacks, helped revive his career. Few of his hits have made it onto CDs and albums, creating a market for his vintage vinyl recordings.
Dudley died on December 22, 2003, aged 75, after suffering a heart attack in his car in a parking lot in Danbury, Wisconsin.
| 1963 | Dave Dudley Sings Six Days on the Road | 16 | Golden Wing |
| 1964 | Songs About the Working Man | 19 | Mercury |
| Travelin' with Dave Dudley | 8 | ||
| Talk of the Town | 16 | ||
| 1965 | Rural Route No. 1 | — | |
| Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun | 3 | ||
| Greatest Hits | — | ||
| 1966 | There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere | 12 | |
| Lonelyville | 6 | ||
| Free and Easy | 10 | ||
| 1967 | My Kind of Love | — | |
| Dave Dudley Country | 29 | ||
| 1968 | Greatest Hits Vol. 2 | 39 | |
| Thanks for All the Miles | 39 | ||
| 1969 | One More Mile | 15 | |
| George (And the North Woods) | — | ||
| 1970 | The Best of Dave Dudley | 32 | |
| The Pool Shark | 16 | ||
| 1971 | Dave Dudley Sings Listen Betty (I'm Singing Your Song) | 32 | |
| Will the Real Dave Dudley Please Sing | 27 | ||
| 1972 | The Original Traveling Man | 18 | |
| 1973 | Keep On Truckin' | 22 | |
| 1975 | Special Delivery | — | United Artists |
| Uncommonly Good Country | 13 | ||
| 1976 | 1776 | — | |
| Presents | — | ||
| 1977 | Chrome and Polish | — | Rice |
| 1978 | On the Road Again | — | |
| 1980 | Interstate Gold | — | Sun |
| Diesel Duets (w/ Charlie Douglas) | — | ||
| 1981 | King of the Road | — | |
| 1982 | Trucker's Christmas | — | Cetera |
| 1983 | 20 Great Truck Driver Favorites | — | Plantation |
| 1984 | Nashville Rodeo Saloon | — | Bellaphon |
| 1985 | Truck Drivin' Man | — |
| 1952 | "Nashville Blues" | — | — | singles only | |
| 1955 | "Cry Baby Cry" | — | — | ||
| 1956 | "Ink Dries Quicker Than Tears" | — | — | ||
| "Rock and Roll Nursery Rhyme" | — | — | |||
| 1959 | "I Just Want to Be Your Friend" | — | — | ||
| 1960 | "It's Gotta Be That Way" | — | — | ||
| 1961 | "Maybe I Do" | 28 | — | ||
| 1962 | "Under Cover of the Night" | 18 | — | ||
| 1963 | "Six Days on the Road"A | 2 | 32 | Dave Dudley Sings Six Days on the Road | |
| "Cowboy Boots" | 3 | 95 | Songs About the Working Man | ||
| 1964 | "Last Day in the Mines" | 7 | 125 | ||
| "Mad" | 6 | — | — | Talk of the Town | |
| 1965 | "Two Six Packs Away" | 15 | — | — | Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun |
| "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun" | 3 | 125 | — | ||
| "What We're Fighting For" | 4 | — | — | There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere | |
| 1966 | "Viet Nam Blues" | 12 | 127 | — | |
| "Lonelyville" | 13 | — | — | Lonelyville | |
| "Long Time Gone" | 15 | — | — | Free and Easy | |
| 1967 | "My Kind of Love" | 12 | — | — | My Kind of Love |
| "Trucker's Prayer" | 23 | — | — | Dave Dudley Country | |
| "Anything Leaving Town Today" | 12 | — | 20 | Greatest Hits Vol. 2 | |
| 1968 | "There Ain't No Easy Run" | 10 | — | 5 | Thanks for All the Miles |
| "I Keep Coming Back for More" | 14 | — | 6 | ||
| "Please Let Me Prove (My Love for You)" | 10 | — | 6 | One More Mile | |
| 1969 | "One More Mile" | 12 | — | — | |
| "George (And the North Woods)" | 10 | — | 4 | George (And the North Woods) | |
| 1970 | "The Pool Shark" | 1 | — | 4 | The Pool Shark |
| "This Night (Ain't Fit for Anything But Drinking)" | 20 | — | 22 | ||
| "Day Drinkin'" (w/ Tom T. Hall) | 23 | — | 20 | single only | |
| 1971 | "Listen Betty (I'm Singing Your Song)" | 15 | — | 5 | Dave Dudley Sings Listen Betty (I'm Singing Your Song) |
| "Comin' Down" | 8 | — | 17 | ||
| "Fly Away Again" | 8 | — | 5 | Will the Real Dave Dudley Please Sing | |
| 1972 | "If It Feels Good Do It" | 14 | — | 26 | The Original Traveling Man |
| "You've Gotta Cry Girl" | 12 | — | 14 | ||
| "We Know It's Over" (w/ Karen O'Donnal) | 40 | — | — | single only | |
| 1973 | "Keep On Truckin'" | 19 | — | 10 | Keep On Truckin' |
| "It Takes Time" | 37 | — | 27 | single only | |
| "Rollin' Rig" | 47 | — | — | Special Delivery | |
| 1974 | "Have It Your Way" | 67 | — | — | |
| "Counterfeit Cowboy" | 61 | — | — | ||
| 1975 | "How Come It Took So Long (To Say Goodbye)" | 74 | — | — | |
| "Fireball Rolled a Seven" | 21 | — | 24 | ||
| "Wave at 'Em Billy Boy" | — | — | — | Uncommonly Good Country | |
| "Me and Ole C.B." | 12 | — | 8 | ||
| 1976 | "Sentimental Journey" | 47 | — | — | |
| "1776" | — | — | — | 1776 | |
| "38 and Lonely" | 83 | — | — | Presents | |
| "Rooster Hill" | — | — | — | ||
| 1977 | "Just Memories" | — | — | — | single only |
| "Devils in Heaven Bound Machines" | — | — | — | Chrome and Polish | |
| "Rollin' On (We Gone)" | — | — | — | ||
| 1978 | "One A.M. Alone" | 95 | — | — | On the Road Again |
| "Wayward Wind" | — | — | — | singles only | |
| 1979 | "Moonlight in Vermont" | — | — | — | |
| 1980 | "Last Run" | — | — | — | Interstate Gold |
| "Big Fanny" | — | — | — | Diesel Duets | |
| "Rolaids, Doan's Pills and Preparation H" | 77 | — | — | King of the Road | |
| "Driver" | — | — | — | ||
| 1981 | "Eagle" | — | — | — | |
| "I Do" | — | — | — | singles only | |
| "I Was Country Before Barbara Mandrell" | — | — | — | ||
| 1983 | "I Wish I Had a Nickel" | — | — | — | Nashville Rodeo Saloon |
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