They'll Never Take Her Love - Leon Payne (1948)

Описание: Today's song, "They'll Never Take Her Love", is a Leon Payne original. The following year, it was picked up by Hank Williams and released as a single that would peak at No. 5 on the country charts. Payne recorded the song in late 1948 and released it in March of 1949.

Leon Roger Payne was born on June 15, 1917 in Alba, Texas. He was born blind in one eye, but lost sight in the other not long into his childhood. He attended the Texas School for the Blind from 1924 to 1935. He got his first guitar when he was 12 and in just six years, would land his first radio job on KWET.

By 1941 Payne was on WRR radio in Dallas, Texas. His recording career started just a year later when he joined Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers. He would also occasionally be a guest vocalist with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Now going by the moniker "The Blind Troubadour", he switched to another Dallas station, KGKO.

In 1947, Fred Rose arranged a deal for him to sign with Bullet Records. He also continued to record for smaller labels, getting a regional hit around this same time on the Nashville label. The record was most popular in Houston, so, following the fans, Payne moved there and began broadcasting on KNUZ. In 1949, Hank Williams heard his songs "Lost Highway" and "They'll Never Take Her Love" and released both as singles giving Payne his first big hits as a songwriter.

Payne made such a name for himself that he was able to sign with Capitol Records in 1950 and was immediately rewarded with a No. 1 Country chart hit for his song "I Love You Because". It would also earn him writing credits for two Top 10 hit covers of it. This success got him hired by KWKM in Shreveport, Louisiana, the home of the Louisiana Hayride program. He would also got to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, He would head back to Houston in 1951 and finally settled in San Antonio. He remained with Capitol Records until 1953 and followed with short stints with Starday, TNT and other smaller Texas labels.

Although Leon was a perfectly adequate singer, he made his biggest mark on country music from the songs he wrote and brought to the genre with artists like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, Ricky Skaggs, George Jones, Merle Haggard...truly legends of country music covering and making their own versions of his songs. He suffered a heart attack in 1965 and became less active in the music world, He would pass away in 1969 at just age 52. He was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.