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Congrat, Steve! You got it!

A song that figures somewhere in the music surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. Certainly surprised a lot of Nashville bigwigs when it became a hit in The Winter of The Summer of Love, late '67.



Here is a wonderful Facebook article about Cargill and how the record came to be:

The Story Behind The Song:

”Skip A Rope”

(written by Jack Moran & Glenn Douglas Tubb)

Henson Cargill (#1 country, #25 pop, 1968)

Link:https://www.facebook.com/ClassicCountryMusicStories/posts/the-story-behind-the-songskip-a-ropewritten-by-jack-moran-glenn-douglas-tubbhens/1414636991995878/

When Henson Cargill became an “overnight sensation” in 1968, it was the perfect melding of a castaway song and a castaway artist. Already established in Las Vegas, Cargill had made two previous trips to Nashville, attracting absolutely no interest. On his third trip, he managed to set up a meeting with one of Nashville’s most-revered record producers, Don Law, who had helmed hundreds of sessions for the majority of Columbia Records’ mostly all-star lineup…….artists such as Johnny Cash, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton, Carl Smith, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Stonewall Jackson, Carl & Pearl Butler, Lefty Frizzell and many more. After turning 65 years old in 1967, Law had been forced out at Columbia due to the company’s strict mandatory retirement policy. Don wasn’t ready to stop working just yet though, and started his own independent production company. His meeting with Henson Cargill went well, but Law wasn’t interested in any of Henson’s original material. However, he did see potential in the Oklahoma City native.

Don scheduled a session with Cargill even before a record deal had been signed. By sheer luck, the night before the session, Henson ran into another native Oklahoman Tom Hartman, who had once worked as a disc jockey in Oklahoma City, but was now pitching songs for Tree Publishing Company. Hartman played Cargill a song called “Skip A Rope,” which had already made the rounds in Nashville without catching a single taker. Cargill liked “Skip A Rope” and the next day he and Law recorded it, although even then it seemed destined to fall by the wayside. Johnny Cash had taken a look at “Skip A Rope” mainly because one of the song’s co-writers Glenn Douglas Tubb (nephew of legendary country star Ernest Tubb) had written a hit for him some ten years earlier called “Home Of The Blues.” Cash personally liked “Skip A Rope” but he, like everyone else, was skeptical about its possible success. However, Johnny did agree to cut “Skip A Rope” if Cargill’s record failed. Due to Cash’s interest and Don Law’s belief that Cargill’s record was going to do well, Law made an arrangement with Tree Publishing that gave him 90 days to secure a record deal for Henson before any other artist could record the song.

But once again, the Nashville establishment was hesitant to take a chance on “Skip A Rope,” which blamed such cultural problems as dishonesty and racism on parents. The one company willing to give it a shot was Fred Foster’s Monument Records, and it proved to be a very wise investment. Cargill signed with absolutely no advance, and within 90 days of the song’s release, “Skip A Rope” had sold more than 500,000 copies. It reached #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart on February 3, 1968 and stayed there for five consecutive weeks. The record also peaked at #25 on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop chart, a sensational showing for a Nashville-based production.

Cargill’s success as a hit-maker was short-lived, however. He achieved only two more Top 15 entries during the remainder of his career, and those occurred during the year or so after “Skip A Rope” peaked (due to the brief momentum he had built up because of that runaway hit), although he continued to land in the lower rungs of the chart through 1980. His last notable release was the #29 “Silence On The Line.” In his later years, Cargill returned to the Oklahoma City area, opening a nightclub called “Henson’s” which he operated in nearby Norman, Oklahoma. He died after complications from surgery on March 24, 2007 at the age of 66. Producer Don Law passed away from cancer in 1982 and was elected posthumously to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. – JH

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