Perhaps his longest lasting musical contribution is not a song he wrote but rather, one he arranged by taking bits of three very old songs that are in public domain. He kept churning out poetic songs and wrote four number one records in 1968. With that one check, Newbury and his family were set for life. I will keep his discretion but know this, my mouth dropped open and I hung onto my chair to keep from falling off. You know I can’t stop there, so I asked, “How much?” “Do you remember how much that check was?”ĭon nodded and winked. I leaned over and reminded him of that story in his book. Ten people gathered around the table, clattering away. In Don’s recollection, Newbury received a royalty check while there for a massive hit he had written for Kenny Rogers and the New Edition, called “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” Don, always discreet and a true Southern gentleman, wrote that he wouldn’t tell how much the check was but Newbury was crazy with excitement and so happy that he took everyone out for a steak dinner and picked up the tab.Ī few months after reading the book, we were having dinner at the Reids’ home. It was a motel where songwriters and singers stayed when they came to Music City. The Statlers were there to sing back-up on the Johnny Cash Show. In Don Reid’s “The Music of the Statler Brothers: Anthology of Music,” he told about the time that the Statlers and Newbury were staying in the same motel in Nashville. Romantical idealism often embeds in a storyteller and makes him a memorable writer like Mickey Newbury.
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