Mac Davis

All Music Guide:

At his commercial peak in the mid-'70s, Mac Davis was one of America's most popular entertainers, a countrypolitan-styled singer and actor who found considerable success in both fields. Born Scott Davis on January 21, 1942, in Buddy Holly's hometown of Lubbock, TX, he began performing in local rock groups while still in his teens. After moving to Georgia, Davis first broke into the music business in 1962, when he was hired by the Chicago-based record label Vee-Jay as their Atlanta-based regional manager. After joining the Liberty label three years later, in 1967 he moved to Los Angeles to head the company's publishing arm, Metric Music; in addition to running Metric's day-to-day operations, he also began composing his own songs, with Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Lou Rawls, and Kenny Rogers & the First Edition among the artists recording his work.

In 1968, Elvis Presley recorded Davis' "A Little Less Conversation," and soon after the King was requesting more of his work. After notching a Top 40 hit with Davis' "Memories," Presley reached the Top Five in 1969 with the songwriter's "In the Ghetto," a single from the landmark From Elvis in Memphis LP. Davis also arranged the music for Presley's first television special before signing his own recording contract in 1970. In that year, he released his first chart single, "Whoever Finds This, I Love You," from his debut album, Song Painter.

In 1972, Davis scored a number one pop hit with "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me," which also reached the country Top 20. His crossover success continued throughout the decade, with singles like 1974's "Stop and Smell the Roses," 1975's "Burnin' Thing," and the following year's "Forever Lovers" scoring with listeners in both camps. Between 1974 and 1976, Davis hosted a musical variety show for NBC television, followed by a string of specials; in 1979, he also starred in the film North Dallas Forty with Nick Nolte.

Davis' success continued in the early '80s; "It's Hard to Be Humble," the title track of his 1980 album, was the first of four consecutive Top Ten country hits that culminated with his biggest country single, "Hooked on Music," the next year. In 1980, he also starred in a TV movie, Cheaper to Keep Her. However, a co-starring role opposite Jackie Gleason and Karl Malden in 1983's disastrous The Sting II effectively ended Davis' career in Hollywood, and by 1985, he had recorded his last Top Ten hit, "I Never Made Love (Till I Made Love With You)." In 1990, Davis made a comeback as a songwriter, co-authoring Dolly Parton's hit "White Limozeen"; that same year, he also took over the title role in the Broadway hit The Will Rogers Follies. Will Write Songs for Food, his first LP in nearly a decade, appeared in 1994.

Wikipedia:

Mac Davis (born January 21, 1942) is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success. His early work writing for Elvis Presley produced multiple number one hits (including "Memories", "In The Ghetto", and the latently popular "A Little Less Conversation"), and a subsequent solo career in the late 1970s made him a well-known name in pop music. He has starred in his own variety show, a Broadway musical, and various films.

Career as a songwriter

Davis initially became famous as a songwriter and got his start as an employee of Nancy Sinatra's company, Boots Enterprises, Inc. Davis was with Boots for several years in the late 1960s. During his time there, he played on many of Sinatra's recordings and she put him in her stage shows. Boots Enterprises was also Davis' publishing company, publishing songs such as "In the Ghetto", "Friend, Lover, Woman, Wife", "Home", "It's Such a Lonely Time of Year", and "Memories", which were recorded by Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra and others. Davis left Boots Enterprises in 1970 to sign with Columbia Records, taking his songs with him.

He became known later also as a country singer. Especially during the 1970s, many of his songs scored successfully on the country and popular music charts, including "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me" (a number one success), "One Hell of a Woman" (Popular #11), and "Stop and Smell the Roses" (a #9 Popular hit). During the 1970s, he also was active as an actor, hosting his own variety show and also acting in several movies.

Davis graduated at 16 from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas. He spent his childhood years with his sister Linda, living and working at the former College Courts, an efficiency apartment complex owned by his father, T. J. Davis, located at the intersection of College Avenue and 5th Street. Davis describes his father, who was divorced from Davis' mother, as "very religious, very strict, very stubborn." Though Davis was physically small, he had a penchant for getting into fistfights. "In those days, it was all about football, rodeo and fistfights. Oh, man, I got beat up so much while I was growing up in Lubbock," Davis said in a March 2, 2008, interview with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper. "I was 5 feet, 9 inches, and weighed 125 pounds. I joined Golden Gloves, but didn't do good even in my division." After he finished high school, Davis moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his mother lived.

In Atlanta, Davis played rock and roll music. He also worked for the Vee Jay record company (home to R&B stars such as Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler and Dee Clark) as a regional manager, and later also served as a regional manager for Liberty Records. In the meantime, Davis was also writing songs. One of the songs he wrote in 1968, called "A Little Less Conversation" was recorded by Elvis Presley (and would become a posthumous success for Presley years later). Shortly after, Presley recorded Davis' song "In the Ghetto" in his sessions in Memphis. According to maverick record producer Jimmy Bowen, "Ghetto" was originally pitched to Sammy Davis, Jr.. Mac, guitar in hand, played the song in a studio, with onlookers such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and other members of the black activist community. Davis, the only Caucasian man in the room at the time would eventually tell Bowen, "I don't know whether to thank ya, or to kill ya." Davis eventually recorded the tune after Presley's version became a success, and was released in a Ronco "In Concert" compilation in 1975. It was later released on a campy Rhino Records "Golden Throats" compilation in 1991. The song became a success for Presley and he continued to record more of Davis' material, like "Memories" and "Don't Cry Daddy". Bobby Goldsboro also recorded some of Davis's songs, like "Watching Scotty Grow", which became a number one Adult Contemporary success for Goldsboro in 1971. Other artists that recorded his material included Vikki Carr, O.C. Smith and Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. "I Believe in Music", often considered to be Davis's signature song, was recorded by several artists (including Marian Love, B.J. Thomas,Louis Jordan, Perry Como, Helen Reddy and Davis himself) before it finally became a success in 1972 for the group Gallery.

Success as a singer

Davis soon decided to pursue a career in country music. He was soon signed to Columbia Records in 1970. His big success came two years later in 1972 when he topped the Country and Pop charts with the success song "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me". It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in September 1972.

Some of Davis' lyrics invoked overtly sexual relationships. "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" (in which he pleads with a woman not to become too enamored of him, because he doesn't want to commit to a full-time relationship with her) was an example, as were other successful songs such as "Naughty Girl" and "Baby Spread Your Love on Me". He wasn't alone; many country songs popular during the 1970s and 1980s featured sexual themes.

During 1974, Davis was awarded the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year award. Some of Davis' other successes included "Stop and Smell the Roses" (a number one Adult Contemporary success in 1974) (Popular #9), "One Hell of a Woman" (Pop #11), and "Burnin' Thing" (Popular #53). At the end of the 1970s, he moved to Casablanca Records, which was now vending country music and was known primarily for its success with disco diva Donna Summer and rockers KISS. His first success for the company in 1980 was the novelty song "It's Hard To Be Humble" which became his first country music Top 10. He also had another Top 10 song with "Let's Keep It That Way" later in the year. He achieved other successful songs like "Texas In My Rear View Mirror" and "Hooked on Music" which became his biggest country music success in 1981 going to #2. In 1985, he recorded his (to date) last Top Ten country music success with the song "I Never Made Love (Till I Made Love With You)".

On January 19, 1985, Davis performed God Bless the USA at the 50th Presidential Inaugural Gala the day before the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan.

Acting career

From 1974 to 1976, Davis had his own television variety show on NBC, The Mac Davis Show. He made his feature film debut opposite Nick Nolte in the football film, North Dallas Forty (1979) and as a result, was listed as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1979" by Screen World magazine.

Davis also starred in the 1981 comedy film "Cheaper to Keep Her", playing a detective for a neurotic feminist attorney.

In 1980, Davis hosted an episode of The Muppet Show.

In 1983 Davis appeared in The Sting II, sequel to The Sting, as Jake Hooker, a younger relative of Johnny Hooker who was played by Robert Redford in The Sting.

Davis played Will Rogers in the Broadway production of The Will Rogers Follies.

In 1998 Davis starred in the sports comedy "Possums", which went on to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Davis served as the balladeer for the 2000 telefilm The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood, replacing Don Williams, who had served the part in 1997's The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!, and Waylon Jennings, who narrated the original Dukes of Hazzard television show. Davis was the first balladeer to appear on screen to welcome the audience and provide exposition.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. For his contribution to the recording industry, he has a star symbol on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Blvd.

In 2001, Davis played a fellow Karaoke competitor to Jon Gries's Sunny Holiday in the Polish brother's film Jackpot. In the film, there was a dispute between Sunny's manager and Davis' character about what song to song to sing, the manager (Garrett Morris) suggested Davis' "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me" which Davis' character claimed just wasn't him.

From 1999 to 2004, Davis voiced the characters Sheriff Buford (two episodes) and talk radio host, "the Sports Jock" (two episodes), on the animated series King of the Hill.

Davis also guest starred briefly in the 8 Simple Rules episode "Let's Keep Going, Part II" in April 2004 and also had a recurring role as Rodney Carrington's father-in-law on the sitcom Rodney.

Decline and comeback

By the mid-1980s, his career in music was declining. His chart success was decreasing rapidly; Davis was one of many country singers who had pop music crossover success in the 1970s and 1980s whose careers slowed down to make way for artists like Garth Brooks and Clint Black. In 2010, rock band Weezer featured a song cowritten by Davis on their album Hurley.

After Casablanca Records closed down, Davis recorded for a short time with MCA Records in the mid 1980s. In 1989, he gained attention when he collaborated with Dolly Parton on her White Limozeen album, co-writing the title track with Parton, and duetting with her on another of the tracks (Parton would later cover Davis' composition "Something's Burning"). That same year, he also was on Broadway, performing in the show The Will Rogers Follies. Mac Davis was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2006.

Davis is honored by the naming of Mac Davis Lane at Avenue Q in his native Lubbock, which he still visits on occasion. He also has a plaque on the West Texas Walk of Fame, beneath the statue of Buddy Holly. He currently describes the golf course as his office.

Personal life

He married three times and has three children — Joel Scott, Noah Claire, and Cody Luke.

Marriages:

At 21, he married a Georgian, Fran Cook, and when their son, Joel, was born a year later, he shifted from playing rock bands to learning the music business via Liberty Records' publishing division. The Liberty job got him to Los Angeles and made it easier to "pitch his own tunes" to record producers. "One day Fran decided to do her own thing and she wanted me to do mine." They divorced, and she returned to Atlanta, where she still lives with Joel.

Mac next met Sarah Barg, then 16 and living in his apartment building with her mother. Two years later they were married. "We talked about having a family, but I was waiting for her to grow up," he says. She left him in 1976 for Glen Campbell and had one child (Dylan) with Campbell, whom she also left shortly after Dylan's birth. "Obviously, I was right," Davis once stated.

In 1980 Davis started to date a young nurse, Lise Gerard. They married in 1982 when she was 24 and subsequently had two children.

Selected filmography

Mac Davis appeared in the following TV shows and movies:

Sources