So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star: “The All-American Boy” by Bill Parsons

Not only the first novelty record in this list to get to number two, but also the first number two with an erroneously-credited performer. Parsons, who came from Coalton, Ohio, was pals with the young Bobby Bare and “The All-American Boy” was apparently written by Parsons himself in collaboration with a strange, middle-aged Irish-Cherokee drifter named Orville Lunsford. However, when Parsons and Bare finally made it into a recording studio, Parsons preferred to sing a song called “Rubber Dolly” and asked Bare to do the talking blues narrative on “The All-American Boy.” However, when the single was released, both sides were credited to Parsons.

Indeed the booming narrator we hear on this record is Bobby Bare, and it’s a very good and purposeful send-up of the rise and conscription of Elvis; I wonder whether Presley had this record in mind when he recorded “Guitar Man” a decade later. More than that, it’s a useful snapshot of how so many rock careers would go – hence the connection with the abovementioned Byrds hit from 1967 – with the final advent of Uncle Sam, threatening to cut the rocker’s hair and replace his guitar with a rifle, providing an ominous prophecy of today, when the Establishment seems intent on depriving the young of any meaningful future whatsoever.

Date Record Made Number Two: 7 February 1959

Number of Weeks At Number Two: 1

Record At Number One:“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by The Platters

UK Chart Position: 22

Other Information: After a few further unsuccessful records, Bill Parsons retired from the music business in 1961. Bobby Bare went on to become a significant name in country music – it is hard to imagine The Proclaimers not being familiar with his signature song “500 Miles Away From Home.”

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