Wings of a Dove · Next to Jimmy

Ferlin Husky made singles under three names. Born in Cantwell, Missouri, in 1925, he went to California in the late 1940s, and Smiley Burnette persuaded him to call himself Terry Preston. As Terry Preston he made his first singles for 4 Star in Hollywood between 1949 and 1951, among them “The Letter You Promised to Write” and “Cross Eyed Gal from the Ozarks.”

Capitol first used him in September 1951, singing “China Doll” with Cliffie Stone’s Barn Dance Orchestra, and from December 1951 recorded him as Terry Preston at its Melrose Avenue studio in Hollywood, with Ken Nelson producing. That run included the first “Gone,” issued in November 1952. His own name first went on the label at a February 1953 session (“Hank’s Song”). On 19 May 1953 he recorded “A Dear John Letter” with Jean Shepard, backed by Fuzzy Owen, Tommy Collins and Lewis Talley on guitars, Herman the Hermit Snyder on bass and Bill Woods on piano; it topped the country chart that summer, and the answer record, “Forgive Me, John,” reached No. 4. The comic Simon Crum, a character he had developed as a disc jockey in Bakersfield, got his own Capitol session on 5 April 1954, and “Cuzz You’re So Sweet” became Crum’s first hit in 1955.

His sessions moved to Nashville in November 1954, first to Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel, where in June 1955 he cut “Saith the Lord” and “Don’t Blame the Children” with the Coon Creek Girls, and from 1956 to the Bradleys’ studio on 16th Avenue South. There, on 7 November 1956, he remade “Gone” with Bob Moore on bass and the Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham singing behind him. Released in January 1957, it went to No. 1 country and No. 4 pop. “Wings of a Dove,” Bob Ferguson’s song, came from the same studio on 24 May 1960, with “Next to Jimmy” on the other side; Capitol issued it in July 1960 and it reached No. 1 country and No. 12 pop.

Marvin Hughes produced most of his sessions from December 1963 to 1965, Kelso Herston from 1967, and Larry Butler from 1970, when the sessions moved to Jack Clement’s studio on Belmont Boulevard. “Once” (1966) and “Just for You” (1967) were his last Top Ten records. After his final Capitol single in August 1972 he went to ABC, recording with Don Gant at Woodland Sound Studio until 1975, the year of his last chart record. In 1977 he remade “Wings of a Dove” at Gusto’s studio on Dickerson Road with Tommy Hill producing, and Gusto issued it as a single the next year. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010 and died on 17 March 2011.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.