According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, it was the thrill of witnessing Jerry Byrd‘s musicianship on the Grand Ole Opry that inspired an eighteen-year-old Pete Drake to purchase a steel guitar after he returned home to Georgia.
One year after his arrival in Nashville, Pete Drake’s weeping steel guitar on “Anymore” helped Roy Drusky secure a Top Ten country hit in September and October of 1960. For three of its twenty weeks on the charts, “Anymore” would hold the #3 position.
The earliest appearance of Pete Drake as a solo artist, however, appears to be the 1961 Starday compilation LP, Nashville Steel Guitar, which includes selections from Jimmy Day, Don Helms, Al Petty, Dick Stubbs, Little Roy Wiggins, and Herbie Remington. Drake dominates the album with four recordings, including the opening track, “Star Gazing.”
The following year, Drake recorded his first full-length album, The Fabulous Steel Guitar Sound of Pete Drake, from which Starday would issue a single release — “The Spook” b/w “Pleading.” The rear sleeve of this album features photos of Pete Drake alongside Skeeter Davis, George Hamilton IV, Bill Anderson, and Roy Drusky.
1962 would also see Floyd Cramer record a Pete Drake composition, “For Those That Cry,” for RCA, who issued the track as a B-side in the US and abroad.
1962 EP
By the latter part of 1963, however, Pete Drake had signed to Mercury’s Smash label. Drake’s next full-length album, Country Steel Guitar, would be one of eight LPs featured in a full-page published in the November 3, 1963 edition of Cash Box.
Pete Drake’s Country Steel Guitar LP
Cumberland Records – Smash budget label
A news item from Billboard‘s April 27, 1963 edition reveals Pete Drake to also now be involved in production work:
Charlotte Harden, c. & w. deejay at WMRP, Flint, Mich., and the jumping yodeler, Kenny Roberts, are featured each Saturday night at 7, with staff band and guests, on WNEM-TV, Bay City, Mich., in a seg[ment] billed as the “Michigan Jubilee.” “I was thrilled the other day,” writes Charlotte, “to receive a telegram from Oscar Davis in Nashville, telling me that the ‘Grand Ole Opry’ stars, who will appear at Cobo Hall, Detroit, May 5, have voted me Miss Grand Ole Opry of Michigan for 1963. Our new record, ‘The Search Is On‘ b.w. ‘My Crazy Heart,’ has just been released. It was produced by Pete Drake, who plays steel on it and features, among others, Floyd Cramer and Billy Grammer.
“Forever,” Drake’s first single release for Smash, entered Billboard‘s Hot 100 pop chart in early March at #99 and fairly quickly reached the Top 40, where it stayed for five weeks, reaching its peak position of #25 for two weeks in late April/early May. “Forever” would also rate highly on Billboard‘s “Middle-Road” chart:
“Forever“
Billboard‘s Middle-Road Singles chart
Apr. 25, 1964
Pete Drake And His Talking Steel Guitar
45 picture sleeve
Music Vendor, who deemed Drake’s Forever LP an “Award of the Week” winner in their April 11, 1964 issue, praised the album thusly:
Pete’s hot hit is the peg on which this attractive album is hung. His guitar talks up a mean streak on some very good songs and a very cute one called “I’m Just A Guitar (Everybody Picks on Me).” Sure to snare sales thanks to current popularity.
Smash Records put a little promotional muscle into Drake’s next single release, “I’m Sorry,” which managed to “bubble under” Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for two weeks in July.
“The Really Crazy New Sound That’s Making Crazy New Sales!“
Music Business
Jun. 27, 1964
Later that year, Drake and his label mate, Roger Miller, were lauded for their part in helping to widen the world of country music in a Record World‘s piece entitled, “Smash’s Miller, Drake Help Make World of Country Music Wider“:
Record World
EXCERPT
Roger Miller and Pete Drake’s Music City-recorded, top-selling single and album hits have not only scored on the C & W charts, they have emphasized the universal appeal of the magic “sound” on the Top-10 pop charts throughout the world …
Smash Records not only believed in the Nashville sound, they have given country music a boost toward the national spotlight with the release of the untapped musical and comedy talents of Roger Miller, and the “Talking Steel Guitar” of Pete.
Fastest Rising Instrumentalist
Record World
Fastest Climbing Instrumentalist
Nov. 7, 1964
Record World‘s November 21, 1964 issue includes a photo of Pete Drake accepting the award for Fastest Climbing Instrumentalist.
P O S T S C R I P T
Virtuosity vs. Commerciality
An Illustrative Tale
Jimmy McDonough‘s biographical portrait, Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen includes a steel guitar sidebar that playfully underscores how the marketplace rewards heartfelt and plain-spoken over instrumental prowess and virtuosity, as a general rule:
Bobby Braddock has an amusing anecdote concerning [Buddy] Emmons and [Pete] Drake. Once they were in the studio together and Emmons said, “Hey, Pete – can you do this?” He then let rip some mind-boggling steel run. Said Braddock, “After the session they were both at the union and Pete went and picked up about 256 checks, flashed ’em, and said, ‘Hey Buddy – can you do this?'”
McDonough then employs a musical analogy to further delineate the essential difference between the two storied steel players:
Listen to Drake’s playing on Frankie Miller‘s unsung classic “It’s Not Easy,” and see if his slow, rolling notes of regret don’t demolish you. Buddy Emmons might be the Jimi Hendrix of steel players, but Pete Drake is the Jimmy Reed. “He didn’t overdo,” said [veteran Nashville producer, songwriter and arranger, Billy] Sherrill. “He knew when not to play.”
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