Buck Owens, Dead At 76

LOS ANGELES (Buck Owens Official Website/ Top 40 Charts) - Buck Owens, probably best known for being one of the stars of long running television show Hee Haw, died Saturday morning at his home in California. The cause of death was not immediately known, Owens was 76.
Owens had an amazing string of more than 20 No 1 records back in the 60's and 70's including "Act Naturally". He is also credited with the honky tonk country sound now known as the Bakersfield Sound.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (real name) ruled the country music scene for a period in the mid-1960s, producing a clear, twangy, danceable sound that he repeated across dozens of chart-topping singles. Though he would later become a fixture on television through the success of Hee Haw, Owens is best remembered by fans and those younger stars he has influenced for timeless hits like 'Act Naturally' (No 1, 1963) and 'My Heart Skips a Beat' (No 1, 1964).

Owens's first No 1 hit, which began a string of six years in which he had at least one No 1 and usually had three, was 'Act Naturally' in 1963, later covered by the Beatles. Following this with a series of similar singles with a clear sound that seemed literally to jump out of AM transistor radios, Owens hit the top again and again with songs such as the ballad 'Together Again' (No 1, 1964), 'I've Got a Tiger By the Tail' (No 1, 1965), 'Think of Me' (No 1, 1966), and 'Sam's Place (No 1, 1967).