The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day concerns the writing of the classic "Amarillo by Morning," made famous by George Strait. Terry Stafford, who had grown up in Amarillo and had scored a major pop hit in 1964 with “Suspicion,” wrote “Amarillo by Morning” with his friend Paul Fraser in the early 1970s. Stafford and Fraser were both essentially old rock-and-roll guys at the time, not cowboys and certainly not rodeo-song specialists. There are actually two versions of how the idea came together, and a good scholarly account of Stafford's life points out the discrepancy. One oft-repeated story says Stafford had played a rodeo dance in San Antonio and was making the long drive home to Amarillo. That trip supplied the geographical outline of the song. Paul Fraser's own recollection is slightly different, and probably the firmer piece of evidence. Fraser said Stafford called him one evening after seeing a television commercial for a delivery company. The commercial boasted that it could get a package to places such as Amarillo by the next morning. Something about that phrase lodged in Stafford's head. He called Fraser and said there ought to be a song in it. Fraser started working on it that night and brought Stafford some lyrics the next day. The two then refined the song together. They turned that mundane advertising phrase into the story of a rodeo cowboy headed from San Antonio to Amarillo, battered physically and financially by his profession but unwilling to surrender his freedom. Fraser later found the whole thing rather amusing, observing that a song important to the revival of the Texas country sound had been written by “a couple of old rockers” and inspired by a commercial. Stafford recorded the original “Amarillo by Morning” in 1973, nearly a decade before George Strait recorded it. Ironically, Atlantic Records didn't realize what it had in the song. We know this because promotional copies of Stafford's album steered radio programmers toward other songs. But in Amarillo, KDJW program director Jim Christofferson flipped the record over and began playing “Amarillo by Morning.” The response was strong enough that Atlantic eventually gave the song A-side treatment. Stafford's recording reached No. 31 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart in early 1974. And then the song simply refused to die. It became familiar around Texas clubs and dance halls. Eventually it reached a young Texas singer who knew something about horses and rodeo himself: George Strait. Strait recorded it for his 1982 album Strait from the Heart, giving it the fiddle-led Western sound most people now associate with it. Released as a single in 1983, Strait's recording reached No. 4, not No. 1, which is remarkable considering how completely the song has come to be identified with him. So one of the quintessential Texas cowboy songs began with a songwriter from Amarillo, possibly a long nighttime haul home from San Antonio, and a commercial promising speedy package delivery. I'm thinking that, somewhere, the advertising copywriter who wrote that Fedex commercial deserves a Stetson --- and I'll bet George Strait would agree. I'll let George pick up the tab on it, though, seein's how I think he can better afford it than I can. 😀 Shown here: Terry Stafford.

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: 64 years ago, President John F. Kennedy signed the legislation that created the Padre Island National Seashore, the longest seashore in the National Park System. In 1958, U.S. Sen. Ralph W. Yarborough had introduced a bill to create a national park on Padre Islan, and on April 8, 1968, it was dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson. The seashore is made up of about 130,000 acres of land and is bounded on the north by Mustang Island and by the Port Mansfield Channel on the south. What's the coolest thing you've caught or seen caught from the beach? Any PINS stories to share? Shown here: A Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle --- highly endangered ---- moves toward the ocean.