Mickey Newbury

Although not a household name, Mickey Newbury was a celebrated songwriter who provided hits for many country and pop acts of the 1960s and ‘70s. After singing tenor in a harmony group and working on shrimp boats in Galveston, Texas, Newbury was signed to Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville. In ‘68, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition had a pop hit with the psychedelic “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” and Elvis Presley had some late-career chart action in ’72 with a Newbury-arranged trilogy of American standards. Newbury himself had a minor hit with the song “Sunshine” in ’73. Laying low through much of the ‘80s, the Nashville Songwriters’ International Hall of Fame inductee returned to recording and performing in the ‘90s, and continued through to his death in 2002.