Whatever Happened To Million Selling “Teddy Bear” Artist Red Sovine?
The mid 1970's could easily be called the decade of the CB radio. It wasn't just the professional truckers that had a CB. No, no, no...we all had one. And of course, song's about CB radio's became a staple of country music.
The biggest 'CB' country hit? That would be 'Convoy' by C.W. McCall. It topped the country and rock music chart and they even made a movie about that song!
But there were many others as well, including a monster #1 country hit called 'Teddy Bear'. It hit the top of the charts, and pretty soon all of us were teary-eyed as we learned the story of 'Teddy Bear', a boy with disabilities who had lost his father (a trucker of course) and wanted to stay in touch with trucker's....and did so on his CB radio.
The artist who brought that song to the top of the charts was Charleston, West Virginia native Woodrow Wilson Sovine. Country music fans of course came to know him as Red , a master of the narrative country songs that we've pretty much lost through the years. Trucking songs? Red could 'talk 'em' with the best. Remember 'Phantom 309', 'Giddy Up Go' and 'Little Joe'? All truckin', talkin' classic country hits.
A lot of fans that were introduced to Red in 1976 with 'Teddy Bear' maybe didn't realize Red had his first #1 hit way back in 1955 with 'Why Baby Why', a duet with Webb Pierce.
So whatever happened to Red Sovine?
Well, Red suffered a heart attack while driving in Nashville on April 4th, 1980. The heart attack along with the injuries suffered in the accident took Red's life at the much too young age of 62.
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