Don Gibson

Donald Eugene Gibson, born April 3, 1928, in Shelby, North Carolina, was an American country singer, songwriter, and Broadway performer. Raised in a poor, working-class family, he left school in the second grade and worked briefly in a textile mill before turning to music. He earned the nickname "the Sad Poet" for his tendency to write songs centered on loneliness and lost love, and he became one of the most influential figures in country music history.

Gibson's recording career began in 1949 when his first band, Sons of the Soil, made their initial recordings for Mercury Records. His breakthrough came in 1957 when he traveled to Nashville to collaborate with producer Chet Atkins at RCA Victor, recording two of his own compositions, "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," in a single afternoon session. Both tracks became hits on the country and pop charts simultaneously. The following year, "Blue Blue Day," which had been recorded before that session, reached number one on the US Country Chart in 1958. Gibson continued to chart throughout the late 1950s and into the 1960s with singles including "Look Who's Blue" (1958), "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" (1959), "Sea of Heartbreak" (1961), "Lonesome No. 1," and "I Can Mend Your Broken Heart" (1962). In 1972, he returned to the top of the country chart with "Woman (Sensuous Woman)."

Beyond his own recordings, Gibson's songwriting reached an extraordinary breadth of artists. His composition "I Can't Stop Loving You" was recorded by more than 700 artists, most prominently by Ray Charles in 1962. He also wrote "Sweet Dreams," which became a major crossover hit for Patsy Cline in 1963. Roy Orbison recorded an entire album of Gibson's songs in 1967, titled Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson, and Neil Young included a recording of "Oh Lonesome Me" on his 1970 album After the Gold Rush — one of the rare instances in which Young recorded a song he did not write himself.

Gibson also recorded prolifically as a duet partner. His collaborations with Dottie West in the late 1960s and early 1970s produced the number-two country hit "Rings of Gold" (1969) and the top-10 single "There's a Story Goin' Round" (1970), along with a joint album titled Dottie and Don, released in 1969. He recorded additional duets with Sue Thompson, yielding top-40 entries including "I Think They Call It Love" (1972), "Good Old Fashioned Country Love" (1974), and "Oh, How Love Changes" (1975).

In 1979, Gibson brought his presence to the Broadway stage, appearing in Broadway Opry '79, adding a theatrical credit to a career built primarily in country music. His string of country hits had extended from 1956 through the late 1970s, making the Broadway appearance a natural extension of his continued visibility as a performer during that period.

Gibson married Polly Bratcher prior to 1958 and later married Bobbi Patterson in 1967. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. He also received induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010. Gibson died of natural causes on November 17, 2003, at the age of 75. In November 2009, the Don Gibson Theater opened in historic uptown Shelby, located in Cleveland County, North Carolina. Housed in a renovated 1939 art deco building, the 400-seat venue includes an exhibit dedicated to Gibson's life and work.