A Broken Date and One Joke Changed Buck Owens’ Career Forever
A songwriter canceled a date to make a recording session, joked about becoming a movie star to explain why, and two years later that joke was a country classic even Buck Owens didn't want to record.
In 1961, a struggling singer-songwriter named Johnny Russell had to break a date.
He'd been called into a last-minute recording session in Hollywood and had to cancel on his girlfriend back in Fresno.
When she asked why, he gave her a line half as a joke: "They're gonna put me in the movies, and they're gonna make a big star out of me."
That sentence became the opening line of a song. The song became "Act Naturally."
And it took two more years, plus a man who initially couldn't stand it, before anyone would touch it.
Two years of nobody wanting it
Russell wrote the song that same day, riding in the back of a friend's station wagon.
He believed in it. He thought it was a fresh way to write about heartbreak, wrapped in a joke about Hollywood.
Almost nobody agreed.
He pitched "Act Naturally" around Los Angeles for two years and got nowhere. "No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get anyone interested in it," Russell later said.
Buck Owens, the Bakersfield, California singer who would turn Russell's rejected song into a No. 1 hit.
The singer who liked it least
By 1963, Russell was writing songs with a woman named Voni Morrison, who also worked with a Bakersfield-based Capitol Records singer named Buck Owens.
Owens had been recording since 1956. He'd had hits, but never a No. 1.
Morrison brought five of Russell's songs to play for Owens and his guitarist, Don Rich.
Of the five, "Act Naturally" was the one Owens liked least.
Don Rich felt the opposite. He kept humming it, singing it, playing the demo over and over until, in Owens' words, the song slowly grew on him.
A phone call, and a deal for the rights
One night, Russell got a call from Owens. He wanted to record the song.
There was a catch: in exchange, Owens wanted the publishing rights.
Russell and Morrison, both still unproven songwriters at the time, agreed to the terms.
Russell later found out something else. "I later found out that he had already recorded the song that day and just wanted the publishing rights," he said. Owens had cut the record first, then called to make the deal official.
Cut in one session at Capitol
Owens recorded "Act Naturally" at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on February 12, 1963, backed by Don Rich and the rest of what would soon become his full-time road band, the Buckaroos.
The song runs two minutes and nineteen seconds — a simple, three-chord country shuffle about a man so miserable that a movie about him wouldn't need any acting at all.
Capitol released it as a single on March 11, 1963.
▶ Watch: Buck Owens and the Buckaroos — "Act Naturally" (1963 single audio)
Listen for how tight the Buckaroos already sound — this was one of the first sessions with the full road band in the studio together.
Buck Owens' first No. 1
The single entered the Billboard country chart on April 13, 1963.
By June 15, it reached number one, holding the top spot for four non-consecutive weeks and staying on the chart for 28 weeks total.
It was Buck Owens' first No. 1 single. It would not be his last — "Act Naturally" opened the door to a run of hits that eventually reached 21 chart-toppers on Billboard's country chart.
The unlikely second life
Two years later, a Beatle changed the song's fate again.
Ringo Starr, a lifelong country and western fan, suggested "Act Naturally" to the band while they were recording the Help! album at Abbey Road.
The Beatles recorded their version on June 17, 1965, in 13 takes, with Paul McCartney on backing vocals and George Harrison on acoustic guitar.
It became the B-side to "Yesterday."
In 1989, Owens and Starr went into Abbey Road together and cut a duet version of the song — the two men who, twenty-six years apart, had each turned Johnny Russell's rejected joke about becoming a movie star into a hit record.
He Missed a Date, Made One Joke — And It Became Buck Owens’ First No. 1 Hit
A songwriter canceled a date to make a recording session, joked about becoming a movie star to explain why, and two years later that joke was a country classic even Buck Owens didn't want to record.
In 1961, a struggling singer-songwriter named Johnny Russell had to break a date.
He'd been called into a last-minute recording session in Hollywood and had to cancel on his girlfriend back in Fresno.
When she asked why, he gave her a line half as a joke: "They're gonna put me in the movies, and they're gonna make a big star out of me."
That sentence became the opening line of a song. The song became "Act Naturally."
And it took two more years, plus a man who initially couldn't stand it, before anyone would touch it.
Two years of nobody wanting it
Russell wrote the song that same day, riding in the back of a friend's station wagon.
He believed in it. He thought it was a fresh way to write about heartbreak, wrapped in a joke about Hollywood.
Almost nobody agreed.
He pitched "Act Naturally" around Los Angeles for two years and got nowhere. "No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get anyone interested in it," Russell later said.
Buck Owens, the Bakersfield, California singer who would turn Russell's rejected song into a No. 1 hit.
The singer who liked it least
By 1963, Russell was writing songs with a woman named Voni Morrison, who also worked with a Bakersfield-based Capitol Records singer named Buck Owens.
Owens had been recording since 1956. He'd had hits, but never a No. 1.
Morrison brought five of Russell's songs to play for Owens and his guitarist, Don Rich.
Of the five, "Act Naturally" was the one Owens liked least.
Don Rich felt the opposite. He kept humming it, singing it, playing the demo over and over until, in Owens' words, the song slowly grew on him.
A phone call, and a deal for the rights
One night, Russell got a call from Owens. He wanted to record the song.
There was a catch: in exchange, Owens wanted the publishing rights.
Russell and Morrison, both still unproven songwriters at the time, agreed to the terms.
Russell later found out something else. "I later found out that he had already recorded the song that day and just wanted the publishing rights," he said. Owens had cut the record first, then called to make the deal official.
Cut in one session at Capitol
Owens recorded "Act Naturally" at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on February 12, 1963, backed by Don Rich and the rest of what would soon become his full-time road band, the Buckaroos.
The song runs two minutes and nineteen seconds — a simple, three-chord country shuffle about a man so miserable that a movie about him wouldn't need any acting at all.
Capitol released it as a single on March 11, 1963.
▶ Watch: Buck Owens and the Buckaroos — "Act Naturally" (1963 single audio)
Listen for how tight the Buckaroos already sound — this was one of the first sessions with the full road band in the studio together.
Buck Owens' first No. 1
The single entered the Billboard country chart on April 13, 1963.
By June 15, it reached number one, holding the top spot for four non-consecutive weeks and staying on the chart for 28 weeks total.
It was Buck Owens' first No. 1 single. It would not be his last — "Act Naturally" opened the door to a run of hits that eventually reached 21 chart-toppers on Billboard's country chart.
The unlikely second life
Two years later, a Beatle changed the song's fate again.
Ringo Starr, a lifelong country and western fan, suggested "Act Naturally" to the band while they were recording the Help! album at Abbey Road.
The Beatles recorded their version on June 17, 1965, in 13 takes, with Paul McCartney on backing vocals and George Harrison on acoustic guitar.
It became the B-side to "Yesterday."
In 1989, Owens and Starr went into Abbey Road together and cut a duet version of the song — the two men who, twenty-six years apart, had each turned Johnny Russell's rejected joke about becoming a movie star into a hit record.
