Harold Bradley (born January 2, 1926), also known as
Harold Ray Bradley, is an American country and pop guitarist and entrepreneur. He
was part of the original "A Team" of Nashville superpickers,
Guitarist Harold Ray Bradley grew up in Nashville. At
first, he was interested in the banjo (which he eventually learned to play),
but his older brother Owen suggested that Harold concentrate on guitar. Harold
was playing amplified jazz guitar by 1943, and Owen got him a summer job that
year playing lead guitar with Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours. After serving in
the navy from 1944 to 1946, Harold enrolled at George Peabody College in
Nashville, where he studied music. To enhance his income, however, Harold
played on the Opry with Eddy Arnold and Bradley Kincaid
Red Foley’s 1950 smash hit “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy,” which went to #1 on both the country and pop charts.
Harold recorded three albums as a pop guitarist on
Columbia Records, "Misty Guitar", "Guitar for Lovers Only",
and "Bossa Nova Goes to Nashville" in the 1960s. Though he is a
capable lead guitarist, Bradley’s studio specialty has been rhythm work. On
many sessions, he was part of a studio-guitar triumvirate with lead specialists
Hank Garland and Grady Martin. Garland excelled in jazzy licks, Martin in
funkier leads. In the aftermath of Garland’s disabling 1961 car accident,
Bradley often took Garland’s place, and Ray Edenton played rhythm guitar.
Bradley’s rhythm playing wasn’t always apparent when listening to recordings, although his parts were essential contributions, as in Roy Orbison’s #2 pop hit “Crying” (1961). Occasionally Bradley did play lead parts that stood out. For example, he played the opening banjo notes on Johnny Horton’s 1959 hit “The Battle of
New Orleans.” Bradley’s electric bass guitar work can be heard on hits such as Patsy Cline’s “Crazy.”
Over the years Bradley played on literally hundreds of
hit recordings, including Eddy Arnold’s “Make the World Go Away,” Don Gibson’s
“Oh Lonesome Me,” Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry,” and Roger Miller’s “King of the
Road.” Other hits to which he contributed are Ray Price’s “Danny Boy,” Jeannie
C. Riley’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet,” Burl Ives’s
“Holly Jolly Christmas,” Faron Young’s “Hello Walls,” Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by
Your Man,” and Conway Twitty’s “Hello Darlin.’”
After operating two small Nashville recording studios in
the early 1950s, Harold and Owen opened Bradley Film and Recording on Sixteenth
Avenue South in 1955. Soon they added a second studio, using a military Quonset
hut. Along with RCA Studio B, which opened in 1957, the Bradley Studios helped
give birth to the pop-influenced Nashville Sound. The Bradley studios also
served as a workshop in which hard-country singers retooled their music for an
evolving marketplace where country competed with rock & roll and pop. For
that matter, the Bradley Studios yielded their share of pop and rock hits.
After Columbia purchased the Bradley studio in 1962, Owen and his son Jerry
opened Bradley’s Barn east of Nashville in tiny Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.
In addition to his studio achievements, Harold Bradley
was the first president of Nashville’s chapter of the National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences (NARAS). In the 1980s he toured with Floyd Cramer and served
as bandleader for Slim Whitman. He also produced Irish country singer Sandy
Kelly and Eddy Arnold’s later RCA albums. In 1991 Bradley began his long
service as president of Nashville’s chapter of the American Federation of
Musicians (AF of M) and later became that organization’s international vice
president. Shortly before the announcement of his 2006 induction
into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bradley received the AF of M’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010 Harold was one recipient of the Trustees Award at the 52nd Grammy Awards
into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bradley received the AF of M’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010 Harold was one recipient of the Trustees Award at the 52nd Grammy Awards
Harold Bradley received the 2016 Cecil Scaife Visionary
Award during a gala event at the Musicians Hall of Fame.. The award, founded in
the name of the music industry pioneer and veteran, Cecil Scaife, is given
annually to an individual whose life and work have made it possible for future
generations to realize careers in the music industry.
Among the cinematic soundtracks boasting Bradley's touch are ''Kissin' Cousins," "Clambake," "Stay Away Joe," "The Fastest Guitar Alive," "Sugarland Express," "A Walk In the Spring Rain," "Tick, Tick, Tick,""Breathless," "Smokey & The Bandit II," "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Six-pack," "Missing" and "Sweet Dreams. Bradley also appeared briefly In Robert Altman's award-winning movie "Nashville."
(Adapted mainly from the Country Music Hall of Fame® and
Museum’s Encyclopedia of Country Music).
3 comments:
For “Harold Bradley - Misty Guitar” (1963) & Guitar for Sentimental Lovers (1972) go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/9377540/Harold_Bradley.rar.html
Misty Guitar (1963)
1 - Exodus - 2:25
2 - Laura - 2:34
3 - Stranger On The Shore - 2:56
4 - Third Man Theme - 2:23
5 - Like Someone In Love - 2:50
6 - While We're Young - 1:45
7 - It's All In The Game - 2:36
8 - The Petite Waltz - 2:10
9 - Misty - 3:03
10 - What's New - 3:10
11 - Petite Fleur - 2:35
12 - Tenderly - 1:45
Thanks to egroj @ Egroj World for original post
Guitar for Sentimental Lovers (1972)
1. Dream
2. Autumn Leaves
3. Theme From "Picnic"
4. Misty
5. Fly Me To The Moon
6. Serenade In Blue
7. It's All In The Game
8. Days Of Wine And Roses
9. Moon River
Thanks to Jose Sanoval @ A Walk in the Black Forest for original post
Thanks very much for these two albums. I met this very nice gentleman in Nashville 1975. A real nice guy to talk with!
Thanks for Harold Bradley.
charlesd
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