Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY (Wednesday, Feb. 12) Advertisement Red Allen born in Perry County, Ky., 1930. Moe Bandy born in Meridian, Miss., 1944. Roy Acuff debuts on charts with "The Prodigal Son," 1944. Eddy Arnold's Top 5 single "There's Not A Thing (I Wouldn't Do For You)" is charted, 1949. Buck Owens records No. 1 song "Act Naturally," 1963. The Judds' "Rockin' With The Rhythm" album goes gold, 1986. George Jones' "Super Hits" album goes gold, 1992. MUSIC AND MORE WILLIE RELEASES OLD DEMOS Ten previously unreleased recordings by Willie Nelson hit retail outlets this week in "Crazy: The Demo Sessions," on Sugar Hill Records. Nelson recorded the songs in the 1960s for Pamper Music, a publishing company owned by Hal Smith and Ray Price. The album ties together Nelson's early 1960s sound and his 1975 breakthrough album, "Red-Headed Stranger," the label says on its Web site, sugarhillrecords.com. Besides the version of "Crazy" pitched to Patsy Cline, and six other demos, the album includes the just-discovered Nelson composition, "I'm Still Here." Advertisement JOHN HIATT ALBUM DUE OUT IN MAY John Hiatt's album "Beneath This Gruff Exterior" is due for release May 6 on his new label, New West Records. It's the first of Hiatt's 18 albums to be credited to "John Hiatt and the Goners," his longtime band made up of guitarist Sonny Landreth, bassist Dave Ranson and drummer Kenneth Blevins, a New West release says. "We really just wanted to go in and get to the nuts and bolts of what this quartet does -- if you come hear us live, this is pretty much what you get," Hiatt says. The foursome reunited for the first time in 10 years to record Hiatt's last album, "The Tiki Bar Is Open," in 2001. FAITH PERFORMS FOR TROOPS ON 'GOOD MORNING AMERICA' Faith Hill sings for troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., in a concert to be broadcast this week on two editions of ABC's "Good Morning America." The show will be aired on Thursday and Friday, with Hill singing a Valentine's Day song during the Friday telecast, LAUNCH reports. Hill's "Cry" holds at No. 5 on the Billboard country albums chart after 16 weeks. NEW BOOK TO LIST COUNTRY'S 500 BEST SINGLES Advertisement "Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles" is due in bookstores March 14. Compiled by music critics David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren, the book profiles the genre's "great single recordings" with mini-essays and reviews. The book is modeled after Dave Marsh's "The Heart of Rock and Soul: The l,00l Greatest Singles Ever Made" and John Morthland's "The Best of Country Music," said a Vanderbilt University Press release.
