On This Day in Country Music: August 22

Rod Brasfield

Comedian Rod Brasfield was born in Smithville, Mississippi. His country humor made him a Grand Ole Opry favorite in the 1940s and 1950s. He died in 1958 at 48 and entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1987.

Connie B. Gay

Connie B. Gay was born in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. He is credited with popularizing the name "country music" in place of "hillbilly," and he served as the first president of the Country Music Association. He entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980.

Holly Dunn

Holly Dunn was born in San Antonio, Texas. Her 1986 song "Daddy's Hands" touched fathers and daughters everywhere, and she later reached No. 1 with "Are You Ever Gonna Love Me" and "You Really Had Me Going." She died in 2016 at 59.

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Liz Hengber

Songwriter Liz Hengber was born in Brooklyn, New York. She wrote Reba McEntire's "For My Broken Heart" and other songs for Reba, plus cuts for Andy Griggs, Trick Pony and Bucky Covington.

Collin Raye

Collin Raye was born in De Queen, Arkansas. His 1991 debut album, All I Can Be, gave him his first No. 1 hit, "Love, Me."

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Mila Mason

Mila Mason was born in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. She arrived in 1996 with her debut album, That's Enough of That, and later co-wrote Mindy McCready's 2002 single "Maybe, Maybe Not."

George Canyon

George Canyon was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. The Canadian country singer finished second on the second season of Nashville Star in 2004.

Shannon Forrest

Shannon Forrest was born in Easley, South Carolina. The Nashville session drummer has played on records for Brooks & Dunn, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood and many more.

Willie Nelson's Always on My Mind album was sitting at No. 1 on the country albums chart. It held the top spot for 22 weeks in all and finished as Billboard's top country album of 1982.

Jo Dee Messina hit No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart with "I'm Alright." The song stayed on top for three weeks.

Sugarland's concert album Live on the Inside opened at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200. It was the duo's second time at the top of that chart, after Love on the Inside in 2008.

Goldie Hill stepped onto the Grand Ole Opry stage and became a member that year. Her 1953 hit "I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes" reached No. 1, making her one of the first women to top the country chart.

Willie Nelson cut "Touch Me" at Bradley Studios in Nashville in his first session with producer Joe Allison for Liberty Records. The song reached No. 7 and became his first hit as a solo singer.

Willie Nelson began work on his first album, ...And Then I Wrote, for Liberty Records in Nashville. The session started at night and went on until the next morning.

Kenny Rogers put out Eyes That See in the Dark, an album produced with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. It reached No. 1 on the country albums chart, and its duet with Dolly Parton, "Islands in the Stream," topped both the pop and country charts.

George Jones and Tammy Wynette went public with their romance, a moment that set Nashville talking. The pair married on Feb. 16, 1969, in Ringgold, Georgia, and became one of country music's best-known duet teams.

Johnny Cash bought a full-page ad in Billboard to stand up for "The Ballad of Ira Hayes." Many radio stations would not play his song about the Native American war hero, and Cash called them out for it.

Floyd Tillman died in Bacliff, Texas, at 88. The singer and songwriter helped shape Western swing and honky-tonk music. He scored a No. 1 hit in 1944 with "They Took the Stars Out of Heaven" and joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.