R.I.P. Jerry Reed - The Original Guitar Man

Jerry Reed passed August31, 2008. Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, country guitarist, session musician, songwriter, and actor who appeared in over a dozen films. As a singer, he may be best known for "Amos Moses", and "When You're Hot, You're Hot", for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1972 and "East Bound and Down", the theme song to the first Smokey and the Bandit movie in which he portrayed the "Snowman", Cledus Snow.

After a two-year stint in the military, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam while he was in the armed forces, thanks to Brenda Lee's 1960 cover of his "That's All You Got to Do." He also became a popular session and tour guitarist. In 1962, he scored some success with the singles "Goodnight Irene" and "Hully Gully Guitar," which found their way to Chet Atkins, who produced Reed's 1965 "If I Don't Live Up to It."

 

In 1967, Reed notched his first official country chart hit with "Guitar Man," which Elvis Presley soon covered. Presley had come to Nashville to record in 1967, and one of the songs he was working on was "Guitar Man," which Reed had written and recorded.Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley's "Too Much Monkey Business" (1968), recorded in the same session. After Presley recorded another of Reed's songs, "U.S. Male," the songwriter recorded an Elvis tribute, "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," which proved to be his first Top 20 hit. Reed's guitar style can also be heard on other Elvis tunes including "Big Boss Man". Elvis also recorded two other Reed tunes; "A Thing Called Love" in 1971 and "Talk About The Good Times" in 1973 for a total of four.

After releasing the 1970 crossover hit "Amos Moses," a hybrid of rock, country, and Cajun styles, which reached #8 on the U.S. Pop charts, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me & Jerry. During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 he issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper "When You're Hot, You're Hot," which was also the title track of his first solo album and reached #9 on the Pop charts.

In 1974, he co-starred with his close friend Burt Reynolds in the film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings. While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds; after 1976's Gator, Reed appeared in 1978's High Ballin and 1979's Hot Stuff. He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films; the first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a Number 2 hit with the soundtrack's "East Bound and Down."

In 1982, Reed's career as a singles artist was revitalized by the chart-topping hit "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)," Reed had a role as a Commander/Huey Pilot for Danny Glover's character in the 1988 movie Bat*21 starring Gene Hackman. He also acted as executive producer on this film.

Jerry Reed will be sorely missed, but always remebered for his guitar and perfoming style.

Refrence Source: wikipedia