David Houston

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This article is about the country music singer. For other uses, see David Houston.

Charles David Houston (December 9, 1935 – November 30, 1993) was an American country music singer. His peak in popularity came between the mid-1960s through the early 1970s.^[1]

Biography

As a child, David Houston lived in this house in Minden across Marshall Street from the residence of later Mayor Jack Batton

Houston, who was born in in Bossier City, was a descendant of General Robert E. Lee and President of Texas Sam Houston. His godfather was 1920s pop singer Gene Austin. Like Austin, Houston lived briefly as a youth in a house at the intersection of Marshall and Goodwill streets in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana.

Houston was one of the earliest artists with National Recording Corporation in Atlanta. In 1963, he rose to national stardom with the single "Mountain of Love;" the song, which was different from the tune made famous by composer Harold Dorman, Johnny Rivers, and Charley Pride, rose to number two on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart. Another song, 1965's "Livin' in a House Full of Love" did just as well.

In 1966, Houston recorded his breakthrough secular smash, "Almost Persuaded." This song, which is unrelated to the Philip Paul Bliss hymn of the same title, is the tale of a married man managing to resist a temptress he meets in a tavern. Houston's recording of it quickly rocketed to number one that August, eventually spending nine weeks atop Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart. Ever since "Almost Persuaded" became a country standard, no song has equaled or bettered Houston's feat. However, two country songs have spent eight weeks at No. 1: Lonestar's "Amazed," which topped the chart from July 17 to September 4, 1999; and "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, from August 9 to September 20 and then October 4, 2003 (in between "Somewhere's" seventh and eighth weeks at #1, on September 27, 2003, Dierks Bentley's "What Was I Thinkin' " topped the chart).

Houston was awarded 2 Grammy Awards for Best Country & Western Recording and Best Country & Western Performance, Male in 1967 for "Almost Persuaded."

"Almost Persuaded" began a string of top five Houston singles through 1973, including six more number ones: "With One Exception" and "You Mean the World to Me" (1967); "Have a Little Faith" and "Already It's Heaven" (1968); "Baby, Baby (I Know You're a Lady)" (1970); and 1967's "My Elusive Dreams" duet with Tammy Wynette. In later years, Houston dueted with Barbara Mandrell on several of her early hits, most notably 1970's "After Closing Time" and 1974's "I Love You, I Love You."

Houston's last Top 10 country hit came in 1974 with "Can't You Feel It." Houston died of a brain aneurysm in Bossier City some two weeks before his 58th birthday. He had been residing in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. He is interred in the Rose-Neath Funeral Home Cemetery in Bossier City. Houston is survived by his only child, David Houston, Jr., who currently resides in Shreveport.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Singles from collaboration albums

Notes

1. ^ David Houston; Singer, 57 - New York Times

References

• Roy, Don. (1998). "David Houston". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 249.

External links

• David Houston at Discogs
• David Houston (singer) at Find a Grave