Faron Young

Biography

Faron Young (February 25, 1932 – December 10, 1996) was an American country singer, musician, and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s. His hits including "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')" and "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young×Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young1955 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksALive Fast, Love Hard, Die Young2:15BLive Fast, Love Hard, Die Young2:14" marked him as a honky-tonk singer in sound and personal style; and his chart-topping singles "Hello Walls×Hello WallsFebruary 1961 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAHello Walls2:22BCongratulations2:25" and "It's Four in the Morning×It's Four In The Morning1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Evening3:042Give A Lonely Heart A Home2:593It's Not The Miles2:094After The Fire Is Gone2:335When Are You Ever Gonns Learn2:186It's Four In The Morning2:587You Keep Right On Loving Me2:528Trip To Tijuana2:389Night Coach Out Of Dallas2:4610Get Some Loving Done2:2411I'll Take The Time2:17" showed his versatility as a vocalist.
Known as the "Hillbilly Heartthrob×Hillbilly Heartthrob8 March 2011 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Hello Walls2:182Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young2:173Sweet Dreams2:434Alone With You1:325All Right2:476Country Girl2:107I Miss You Already (And You're Not Even Gone)2:258If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')2:209It's Four In The Morning1:3510Wine Me Up2:23", and following a singing cowboy film role as the "Young Sheriff", Young's singles charted for more than 30 years.
In failing health, he died by suicide at the age of 64 in 1996. Young is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early years

Young was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the youngest of six children of Harlan and Doris Young. He grew up on a dairy farm his family operated outside the city.
Young began singing at an early age, imagining a career as a pop singer, but after he joined some friends watching Hank Williams perform with nine encores on the Louisiana Hayride, Young switched to country music, instead. He performed at the local Optimist Club and was discovered by Webb Pierce, who brought him to star on the Louisiana Hayride in 1951, then broadcast on KWKH-AM.
He graduated from Fair Park High School that year and attended Centenary College of Louisiana.

Career

Young recorded in Shreveport. His first releases were on Philadelphia's Gotham Records. By February 1952, he was signed to Capitol Records, where he recorded for the next 10 years. His first Capitol single appeared that spring.
Young moved to Nashville and recorded his first chart hit, "Goin' Steady", in October 1952. His career was sidetracked when he was drafted into the United States Army the following month. "Goin' Steady" hit the Billboard country chart while Young was in basic training. It peaked at number two, and the US Army Band took Young to replace Eddie Fisher on tours—its first country music singer—just as "If You Ain't Lovin'" was hitting the chart. He was discharged in November 1954 and returned to Nashville.
From 1954 to 1962, Young recorded many honky-tonk songs for Capitol, including the first hit version of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams". Most famous was "Hello Walls×Hello WallsFebruary 1961 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAHello Walls2:22BCongratulations2:25", a Willie Nelson song Young turned into a crossover hit in 1961. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

During the mid-1950s, Young starred in four low-budget films: Hidden Guns, Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer, Raiders of Old California, and Country Music Holiday. He appeared as himself in cameo roles and performances in later country music films and was a frequent guest on television shows throughout his career, including ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. His band, the Country Deputies, was one of country music's top bands who toured for many years. He invested in real estate along Nashville's Music Row in the 1960s, and in 1963, co-founded, with Preston Temple, the trade magazine, Music City News.
The same year, Young switched to Mercury Records and drifted musically, but by the end of the decade, he had returned to his sound, including "Wine Me Up×Wine Me Up1970 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracksA1Your Time’s Comin’3:15A2Little Green Apples3:17A3Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town2:34A4A Game for Believers2:57A5Painted Girls and Wine2:47A6Love Will Make It Alright2:03B1Wine Me Up2:28B2Galveston3:06B3Love Sweet Love2:16B4Gentle on My Mind2:52B5That’s My Way2:10". Released in 1971, the waltz-time ballad "It's Four in the Morning×It's Four In The Morning1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Evening3:042Give A Lonely Heart A Home2:593It's Not The Miles2:094After The Fire Is Gone2:335When Are You Ever Gonns Learn2:186It's Four In The Morning2:587You Keep Right On Loving Me2:528Trip To Tijuana2:389Night Coach Out Of Dallas2:4610Get Some Loving Done2:2411I'll Take The Time2:17", written by Jerry Chesnut, was one of Young's best records and his last number-one hit, also becoming his only major success in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart.
By the mid-1970s, his records were becoming overshadowed by his behavior, making headlines in 1972, when he was charged with assault for spanking a girl in the audience at a concert in Clarksburg, West Virginia, whom he claimed spat on him, and for other later incidents. In the mid-1970s, Young was the spokesman for BC Powder.
Young signed with MCA Records in 1979; the association lasted two years. Nashville independent label Step One Records signed him in 1988, where he recorded into the early 1990s (including a duet album with Ray Price), then withdrew from public view. Although country acts including BR549 were putting his music before audiences in the mid-1990s, Young apparently felt the music industry, which had undergone a revolution of sorts in 1991, had mostly rejected him.
Faron Young's son Robyn followed him into the country music business starting in 1975. Robyn was the main headliner at his father's night club, Faron Young's Jailhouse. In the early 1980s, Robyn began touring with his father, performing as an opening act.

Personal life

Young briefly dated Billie Jean Jones before she became the second wife of country music superstar Hank Williams. Jones met Williams through Young; they went on to wed in October 1952.
In 1952, while Young was stationed at Fort McPherson, he met his future wife, Hilda Macon, the daughter of an Army master sergeant and the great-granddaughter of Uncle Dave Macon. The couple married two years later in November 1954 after Young was discharged from the Army. They had four children, sons Damion, Robyn, and Kevin, and a daughter Alana.
Young's later life was plagued with bouts of depression and alcoholism. In 1972, Young was arrested and charged with assault for spanking a girl in the audience at a concert in Clarksburg, West Virginia, after claiming she spat on him. Young appeared before a Wood County, West Virginia, justice of the peace and was fined $24, plus $11 in court costs. On the night of December 4, 1984, Young fired a pistol into the kitchen ceiling of his Harbor Island home. When he refused to seek help for his drinking problem, Young and his wife Hilda separated, sold their home, and bought individual houses. When asked at the divorce trial if he feared hurting someone by shooting holes into the ceiling, Young answered "Not whatsoever." The couple divorced after 34 years of marriage in 1987.
A combination of feeling he had been abandoned by country music, and despondency over his deteriorating health, were cited as possible reasons as to why Young shot himself on December 9, 1996, then died in Nashville the following day. He was later cremated. His ashes were spread by his family over Old Hickory Lake outside Nashville at Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash's home while the Cashes were away.

Legacy

In 2000, Young was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The cat owned by Peanuts character Frieda was named "Faron" after Young, whom Charles Schulz "admired very much," but made few appearances in the strip.
A live performance video clip of Young's "It's Four in the Morning×It's Four In The Morning1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Evening3:042Give A Lonely Heart A Home2:593It's Not The Miles2:094After The Fire Is Gone2:335When Are You Ever Gonns Learn2:186It's Four In The Morning2:587You Keep Right On Loving Me2:528Trip To Tijuana2:389Night Coach Out Of Dallas2:4610Get Some Loving Done2:2411I'll Take The Time2:17" was the first music video to air on CMT when it launched on March 6, 1983.
A country song by Tex Garrison mentions Faron Young in his opening lyrics with the lines "Got a stack of records when I was one, listened to Hank Williams and Faron Young."
The Bottle Rockets make a wistful reference to Young in their song "Sometimes Found" on their album Brand New Year.
Prefab Sprout recorded a country-tinged song called "Faron Young" on their album Steve McQueen. The chorus repeats the line "You give me Faron Young four in the morning". The track reached number 74 in the UK Singles Chart.
Faron's hits "Hello Walls×Hello WallsFebruary 1961 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAHello Walls2:22BCongratulations2:25" and "Alone with You×Alone With You1958 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAAlone With You1:55BEvery Time I'm Kissing You2:15" make brief appearances in the movie biography 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story.
The Blazing Zoos' song "Still Up at Five" on their album Chocks Away is a sequel/homage to "It's Four in the Morning×Four In The Morning1997 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Four In The Morning2:542Memphis2:233Live Fast, Love Hard & Die Young2:284Alone With You2:105Apartment #92:536Face To The Wall2:217Unmitigated Gall2:368Goin' Steady2:309I Could Never Be Ashamed Of You2:2010Country Girl2:43."
"I Miss You Already" can be heard in the 2005 Johnny Cash movie biography Walk the Line.

Box sets

In 2012, the UK-based Jasmine Records released a budget-minded two-CD box set entitled Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young: The Early Album Collection. The set focused on Young's first four albums. Later in 2012, Real Gone Music released a similar compilation, which combined Young's first six albums with key singles.
Two years before Young's death, German independent record label Bear Family Records released a box set entitled The Classic Years 1952–1962, which showcased Young's early recordings for Capitol. It did not include Young's recordings for Mercury or Step One.
Young's final recordings were released on a CD entitled Are You Hungry? Eat Your Import by the record label Showboat Records, which was founded by fellow country music star Liz Anderson.

Film depiction

Actor Fred Parker Jr. portrayed Young in the biopic I Saw the Light, released on March 25, 2016.