#18: Shutters And Boards by Jerry Wallace

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: January 1963
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #24
YouTube: “Shutters And Boards”
Lyrics: “Shutters And Boards”

Jerry Wallace was born in 1928 in Guilford, Missouri. He loved to sing and on June 1, 1952, he was one of the performers at the eighth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Among the other performers was Roy Brown, who by that time had charted over a dozen Top Ten hits on the Billboard R&B chart. Child star Toni Harper, who recorded with Oscar Peterson, Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie in the ’50’s. And Louis Jordan who had 54 Top Ten hits on the Billboard R&B chart, eighteen of which climbed to #1, including “Caldonia”. Also, jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon was there to sing his 1949 #1 hit “Ain’t Nobody’s Business”, which stayed on the chart for 34 weeks. (It  was first popularized in 1922 by Bessie Smith and also Alberta Hunter). Wallace’s presence made the bill inter-racial that night.

He got a record contract with Mercury Records in 1952. It took him twelve single releases before he cracked the Billboard charts with what were mostly rockabilly tunes. In 1958 “How The Time Flies” climbed to #11. The following year he had his biggest hit in the USA with “Primrose Lane”, which peaked at #8.

In the early sixties Jerry Wallace struggled to match the success of “Primrose Lane”. He released another fifteen singles between 1960 and 1963. Of these, only “Shutters And Boards” cracked the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Shutters And Boards” was written by Audie Murphy and Scott Turner. Murphy was born in 1925 in Kingston, Texas. He was America’s most decorated combat soldier in World War II. He penned songs recorded by Dean Martin, Teresa Brewer, Bonnie Guitar, Charley Pride, Bobby Bare, Roy Clark, Marty Wilde, Eddie Arnold, Harry Nilsson, Slim Whitman, and others. Murphy died in a small plane crash in 1971 at the age of 45. (In error, Murphy’s birth date has been stated as “1924” due to a birth certificate error in the county in the state of Texas soon after his birth in 1925).

The songwriter credited as Scott Turner, was going by a pseudonym. His real name was Graham Turnbull. A relative of mine in Ottawa wrote to tell me a bit of the back story.

“It’s taken a while, but I finally have tracked down the information I’ve been looking for on Graham Turnbull, who wrote the song “Blue Ribbon Baby” (for Tommy Sands). Graham is a hard guy to track because he used so many different names.  My brothers and I remembered that he wrote “Blue Ribbon Baby” under the name Allison Dewar, his father’s first and second names. Later, he adopted other names, but ultimately… settled on Scott (or Scotty) Turner. Graham lived next door to us on Holland Avenue in Ottawa in the early 1950’s. His parents and mine became close friends and stayed in touch over the years. As kids, we were thrilled to see Graham perform on the big variety shows of the day… I recall Ed Sullivan, Perry Como and possibly others. At the time Graham was the lead in a group of 4 or 5 young guys that I think played under the name The Sharks. His major music association at the time was as leader of the back-up band for Tommy Sands.

I remember well his visit in the early 60s, after he had acquired some modest fame. He regaled us with stories of his pals in the music business. The one story I remember was that Bobby Darin had asked him to move his car from LA to Phoenix, and Graham got to drive Bobby Darin’s really fast car on roads with no speed limit. When I was 13-14 years old this was a very memorable tale. My brother also remembers that Graham moved from Ottawa to go to school in the US on a track and field scholarship. We heard later that he moved to Nashville and set up a recording company….”

Graham Morrison Turnbull was born in 1931 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He was a track and field athlete and represented Canada in the long jump at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver at the newly constructed Empire Stadium on East Hastings Street. While recuperating from a serious sporting injury in 1955, Turner taught himself to play guitar. Though he enrolled in a post graduate program at Texas Tech University, Lubbock in 1956, he would not stay long. In 1956, Turner befriended Buddy Holly. Between 1956 and 1958 Turner and Holly co-wrote 13 songs, most famously “I’m Gonna Love You Too“. However, on the single release Turner was not listed among the credits. However, the sheet music for the song he co-wrote with Holly ensured he had a claim on royalties from the song over the years. He co-wrote songs with other songwriters including Doc Pomus, Mac Davis, Herb Alpert and Harry Nilsson.

In 1959 Scotty Turner (as Allison Dewar a.k.a. Graham Turnbull was now going by) played 12-string guitar on the studio recording of “Primrose Lane“, a Top Ten hit for Jerry Wallace that year. Turner wrote over 400 songs during his songwriting career. They were recorded by various artists including The Del-Vikings, Jimmy Dean, Bonnie Guitar, Wanda Jackson, Charlie Pride, Tammy Wynette and others.

In 1963, Turner joined A&M Records as a writer/producer. From there, he went on to be general manager of Central Songs publishing company in Hollywood, and eventually became executive producer of the country division of Liberty/Imperial Records in Hollywood. When Liberty was bought by another corporation, Turner moved to Nashville in 1968 to continue work with Liberty/Imperial/United Artists.

In 1967, now billed as Scott Turner, having dropped the “y,” he produced Aaron Neville‘s album, Like It ‘Tis, following up Neville’s #2 hit record “Tell It Like It Is”. Turner produced records for Harry Nilsson, Gene Vincent, Roy Clark, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, The Lettermen, Teresa Brewer, The New Christy Minstrels, Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold and others. Over the years Scott Turner was a guest on a variety of TV shows including The Perry Como Show, The Milton Berle Show, The Mike Douglas Show, Oprah Winfrey’s A.M. Chicago and Entertainment Tonight. Graham Turnbull (aka Scott Turner) died in 2009 at the age of 77.

“Shutters And Boards” is a song about a guy who recognizes he’s to blame for his home with his new bride turning from laughter to tears. Whatever he did, she can never forgive him. Now the empty house is covered with shutters and boards. Time passes, and he has a dream about the house where they used to live.

Last night I dreamed that you came to our house,
to take an old book from the shelf.
If you’ll open the shutters, I’ll tear down the boards,
’cause I drove every nail by myself.

“Shutters And Boards” peaked at #1 in Milwaukee, #2 in Seattle and Amarillo (TX), #3 in Kingston (ON), #4 in Modesto (CA), Lincoln (NE), and Vancouver (WA), #7 in Montreal and Eureka (CA), #8 in Charleston (WV) and Des Moines (IA),#9 in Denver and Miami, #11 in Toronto and Minneapolis/St. Paul, and #12 in Philadelphia.

In the early 60s, ten of Wallace’s singles didn’t crack the Hot 100. But in 1964 Jerry Wallace was back in to Top 20 with a song written by Cindy Walker titled “In The Misty Moonlight”.

From the late 50’s to early 1964 Jerry Wallace appeared on American Bandstand on ten occasions. He also opened a show for Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl. He also did vocals in the Disney film Flipper. In 1965 Jerry Wallace had his first charting single on the Billboard country chart titled “Life’s Gone and Slipped Away”.

In 1972 Jerry Wallace had his first number one hit, “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry”. The song climbed to #1 on the Billboard Country chart. That year the Country Music Association nominated him to receive the Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. He also got a nomination with his song “To Get To You” for Single of the Year. Charlie Pride won Male Vocalist of the Year and Donna Fargo won Single of the Year for “Happiest Girl In The Whole USA”.

Through the 70s Wallace continued to have more Top Ten hits on the country charts in the USA and Canada. Among these were “Do You Know What It’s Like to Be Lonesome”, “Don’t Give Up On Me” and “My Wife’s House”. Between 1965 and 1980 Jerry Wallace had 35 singles appear on the Billboard country chart. By the time he died in 2008 the New York Times would refer to him as a country singer.

December 11, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Jerry Wallace Interview,” American Bandstand, September 5, 1964.
“Jerry Wallace, Country Singer, Dies at 79,” New York Times, May 10, 2008.
“Jerry Wallace: ‘Mr Smooth’ of Country-pop,” Independent, UK, June 16, 2008.
“Audie Murphy Biography,” Audie L. Murphy Memorial website.
Scott Turner – Bio, Wikipedia.org.

CKWS 960-AM Kingston (ON) Top Ten | January 22, 1963