West Virginia Music Hall of Fame – Class of 2008
Charlie McCoy-West Virginia’s Harmonica Legend: It All Began With 50-Cents & a Cereal Box Top
FLASHBACK-1949: Eight year old Charlie McCoy spent the summer of 1949 playing baseball, listening to the radio, and reading comic books. He lived with his single mom in Fayetteville, West Virginia, where she worked as a legal secretary. One afternoon while reading Captain America Comics, he came across an eye-catching advertisement that boldly stated:
“You Can Play the Harmonica in Seven Days or Your Money Back–Just Fifty Cents and a Box Top.”
He showed the comic book ad to his mother and made his case for how much he wanted to learn to plan an instrument. So she gathered the required cereal box top, taped two quarters to it, added a three cent stamp to the envelope and mailed it off to “Harmonica Land”. Charlie McCoy’s first harmonica arrived six weeks later.
So how did Charlie’s harmonica playing work out for him, in the long term?
FLASH FORWARD-2024: As of today, Charlie McCoy is 83-years old, alive and well and still playing harmonica on a regular basis at the Grand Ole Opry. Nowadays, the kid from Fayette County, WV, is often cited as the “Most Recorded Harmonica Player in Music History”. With his vast talent and versatility he became a go-to musician in the Nashville studio recording scene, beginning in the early 1960’s. Besides the harmonica, he could play at least eight other instruments including the drums, bass, organ, guitar, tuba, trombone, saxophone, vibraphone and percussion mallets. To date, he has taken part in over 14,000 recording sessions. You might want to look at that number again. 14,000! In fact, there was a 15 year period during the 1960’s and ‘70’s where Charlie McCoy averaged over 400 recording sessions a year.
He has recorded with many of the biggest artists of modern popular music. A partial list includes Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Quincy Jones, Ringo Starr, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, Gordon LIghtfoot, Bob Seger, Leon Russell, Tanya Tucker, Rodney Crowell, Perry Como, Vince Gill, Paul Simon and so many others.
Charlie was known for building long term relationships with some of the biggest artists in the music business. He recorded thirteen albums with Elvis Presley. Eight of these were soundtracks to Elvis Presley movies, such as Harum Scarum, Clambake, and Frankie & Johnny. For the soundtrack albums, Charlie was also Elvis’s recording session band leader, as well as a musical contributor.
McCoy played on five Bob Dylan albums, beginning with Highway 61 Revisited, in 1965.
In 1966 Dylan recorded Blonde on Blonde in Nashville, and Charlie was the bandleader on the recording sessions working for record producer Bob Johnston. After a very successful experience, Dylan chose to record his next three albums in Nashville, and use Charlie McCoy as a musical contributor and band leader on the albums John Wesley Harding; Nashville Skyline; and Self Portrait.
Charlie McCoy got into the television business when he was hired as the Musical Director of the popular, country themed, comedy and musical variety show, Hee-Haw in the late 1960’s. He served in that position for 18 years. It was here he got to work with some of his favorite artists for the first time, like Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, and Sammy Davis, Jr. who were guests on the show.
On his own, he won a Grammy in 1972 for his instrumental album, The Real McCoy.
West Virginia Days
Charles Ray McCoy was born in Oak Hill, Fayette County, West Virginia, on March 28, 1941, but it was a short stay. His parents Opal and Ray McCoy divorced when Charlie was two years old. Following the separation, his father moved to Florida, while Charlie and his mom moved just six miles north to Fayetteville, the county seat, where Mrs. McCoy became a legal secretary.
In his autobiography 50-Cents & a Box Top, Charlie describes himself as a “sickly child” who had a particularly rough bout of anemia. His parents decided it would be best if he would spend the school year with his dad in Miami, thus avoiding the harsh West Virginia weather, and the summers with his mom in Fayetteville.
This brings us full circle, to the summer of 1949 when eight year old Charlie McCoy gets his first harmonica. Charlie remembers, “I waited for what seemed like an eternity, but one day, it showed up in the mail. No sooner did the harmonica find my mouth than I was running around the house making all sorts of noise on it.” He was banished to the front porch but he kept on making such a harsh sounding racket that his mother took some action. McCoy recalled, “My mother found some instructions in the instrument’s box and sat me down and patiently explained that when it said ‘blow,’ I needed to exhale, and when it said ‘draw,’ I was supposed to inhale. She also showed me how the numbers they provided corresponded to the holes in the harp.”
Using this new found information he started working his way through the four songs that were printed on the instruction sheet: “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, “Oh, Susanna”, “Old Folks at Home”, and “Polly Wolly Doodle”. He learned the songs very quickly and realized, looking back, he had a better than average ear for music. However, baseball was Charlie’s true love at this age, so the harmonica was packed away a few weeks after it arrived, and he spent the remainder of the summer of ‘49 playing baseball and rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals.
When summer came to an end, and with school about to start, Charlie returned to Florida, with his harmonica in tow. What happened next was a nice surprise. He remembers, “When my dad unpacked my suitcase he saw the harmonica and he looked up at me and said, ‘Where did you get this?’ Dad picked it up and played a simple tune I recognized, ‘Home Sweet Home’. I was shocked. I didn’t know he could play. I thought that was pretty cool.” As it turned out, his dad’s repertoire of only three songs was just about as wide as Charlie’s, with four songs. But there was a connection. And now, a family history of sorts, what with his mom being responsible for bringing the harmonica into his life, and now his dad showing an interest in Charlie’s musical abilities. McCoy has said that the harmonica was not just his calling card, but also a touchstone, in remembrance of his loving parents.
But if that moment in time struck a chord, the harmonica would once again take a back seat to something else. On the morning of December 25, 1949, Charlie McCoy found, much to his delight, a beautiful Harmony guitar from Montgomery Ward under the tree, a present from his father.
Learning and mastering the guitar became his focus from that point forward, as the harmonica was set aside for nearly eight years. According to McCoy, “I didn’t get serious about the harp until I was sixteen (1957) and started listening to a lot of Jimmy Reed and Little Walter records.”
By the time Charlie was ready to enter high school his mother and father decided it would be best for him to move to Florida full time. His dad paid for guitar lessons, and young Charlie was showing real promise as a multi-talented musician. In the Miami public schools his music teachers recognized he had a special gift for learning music by ear. He had already had a bit of “music theory education” in junior high school, and he recalled, “The school system in Florida decided to experiment with music theory in all grades. I was like a sponge. I couldn’t get enough of it.”
In 2017 McCoy had this to say on the topic of his leaving West Virginia for the high schools of Miami, Florida:
“To this day, I still consider West Virginia my home, and I’m honored to be a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and to be a recipient of an honorary doctorate from West Virginia University.
But it was in Miami that the music bug bit me hard, sending me on a lifelong search for opportunities to create new and interesting music.”
Rock & Roll Charlie * The Old South Jamboree and the Road to Nashville
In high school, as a guitarist and singer, Charlie put together a rock and roll band called “Charlie McCoy & the Agendas”. At age sixteen he attended a Miami-based country music, barn dance, radio show called the Old South Jamboree. At some point, a reluctant Charlie McCoy was coaxed on stage to sing a song. McCoy’s performance that night, along with the positive response from the audience, led to his band being signed to the Old South Jamboree. Every Old South show, two shows a night, had a ten minute slot set aside for that “new” music, rock ‘n’ roll, and now that slot belonged to Charlie McCoy & the Agendas.
The exposure the band got from its regular gig at the Old South Jamboree got them a lot of work throughout Florida playing rock ‘n’ roll at teen dances and in nightclubs. At one show, in 1958, he met rising country star Mel Tillis, who encouraged him to try his luck in Nashville. Tillis made some calls on his behalf and Charlie headed to Music City and Cedarwood Publishing where Tillis had a side gig writing songs. Mel was out of town but Charlie did get auditions with two Nashville recording legends, Chet Atkins at RCA Victor and Owen Bradley at Decca Records. They both passed on Charlie as a solo recording artist, but Bradley had enough interest in McCoy to invite him to a Brenda Lee recording session, Bradley was running later in the day. Charlie sat through the session and has said many times it changed his life. He says in his book:
“The rest of the day and night, I dreamed about that session. All of a sudden, being a star wasn’t so important to me. If there was any way possible, some day, somehow, I wanted to be a part of what I had just seen in the studio. I had never been around musicians who were so good. After a week’s stay, my head was swimming with visions of Nashville’s Music Row all the way back to Miami”
A few weeks after returning from Nashville, Charlie McCoy enrolled at Miami University in the fall of 1959, majoring in musical education. His goal at the time, one that met with parental approval, was to become a music teacher. Meanwhile he continued to play rock ‘n’ roll on the “Jamboree”, and take college classes in arranging and conducting.
When the university’s music faculty discovered he was playing rock and roll for a square dance, they warned him not to continue with such “lower forms of music”. McCoy replied that he was willing to quit his work at the barn dance if they would give him a scholarship. He needed the gig money for school. The faculty rejected his request.
Charlie finished his first semester at Miami University, but then made the difficult decision to drop out of school and return to Nashville to try his chances in Music City. This greatly disappointed his father, but eventually he came around and supported his son’s decision, as he always had done in the past.
Charlie McCoy moved to Nashville in 1960 and recorded several sides as a rock & roll singer and guitarist for the Cadence and Monument labels. His first single was a song he co-wrote, called “Cherry, Berry, Wine”. The song made it to #99 on the Top 100 national Billboard Charts.
He found a lot of work playing on song demos for various Nashville songwriters. Artists and record producers would hear the “demo” of a song and decide if it was one they wanted to record. In 1961, Chet Atkins, listening to a demo tape of the song “I Just Don’t Understand”, noticed McCoy’s playing and enlisted him for a recording session with budding film star Ann-Margret. The song reached #19 on the Top 100.
Also in 1961, Roy Orbison had a Top 25 national hit record with “Candy Man”, which prominently featured Charlie’s harmonica playing throughout the song. McCoy has said, “1961 was a good year for me. Two songs, two national hits. Wow. It made my career, and for a twenty year old to make forty nine dollars for three hours of work, back then, it was a dream come true.”
In-Demand Session Musician
For the rest of the 1960’s and 1970’s, Mccoy worked thousands of recording sessions, often as many as four hundred in a single year. He can be heard on recordings by a virtual who’s who of country music: “500 Miles Away From Home” (Bobby Bare), “Orange Blossom Special” (Johnny Cash), “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” (Waylon Jennings), “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (George Jones), “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)” (Jerry Lee Lewis), “My Tennessee Mountain Home” (Dolly Parton), “Take This Job and Shove It” (Johnny Paycheck), and “Delta Dawn” (Tanya Tucker). Likewise Eddy Arnold, Roy Clark, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson, Kitty Wells, Charley Pride, and Tammy Wynette – all eventual members of the Country Music Hall of Fame – relied on McCoy’s harmonica talents. For his efforts, Charlie received the Country Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year award in 1972 and again in 1973.
He won a Grammy in 1972 for his recording of “Today I Started Loving You Again”.
As noted earlier in this piece, when Charlie McCoy was on a recording session, he brought with him his abilities to play a variety of instruments, including bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, mallet percussion, trumpet, saxophone, tuba and of course, the harmonica. This made him a very valuable player to have on any session as he was able to slide from one instrument to another, as the record producer or artist needed for the song or album.
After playing guitar on Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row”, recorded in New York, McCoy was among a handful of top Nashville studio players who contributed to Dylan’s next four albums, all recorded in Nashville. These were Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and the two record set, Self Portrait.
In Nashville and Hollywood, McCoy played on thirteen Elvis Presley albums, eight of which were soundtracks for Elvis Presley movies. He also backed Presley on singles such as “Big Boss Man” and “Hi-Heel Sneakers”
Other notable records showcasing McCoy’s harmonica are “Seattle” (Perry Como), “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” (Gordon Lightfoot), “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (Patti Page), and “The Boxer” (Simon & Garfunkel). In addition, McCoy can be heard on recordings by Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Manhattan Transfer, Leon Russel, Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vinton, and many more.
The Hee-Haw Television Experience and Random Notes
In 1978 Charlie McCoy began a career in television when he accepted the job of Musical Director of the hit syndicated, country & western themed variety show, Hee Haw. He held that position for nineteen years. On that show, Charlie performed 27 times with the “Hee-Haw-Million Dollar Band”, which was an all-star group of session musicians including Chet Atkins-lead guitar; Roy Clark-rhythm guitar; Jethro Burns-mandolin; Johnny Gimble-fiddle; Floyd Cramer-piano; Boots Randolph-saxophone; Danny Davis-trumpet; and Charlie McCoy on Harmonica. In addition, Charlie made 22 appearances on Hee Haw as a solo, featured artist.
Charlie McCoy is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Musicians Hall of Fame, both located in Nashville. In 2008 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, in Charleston, WV.
In May of 2016, West Virginia University awarded McCoy an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts.
In 2017, The WVU Press published his autobiography (with Travis Stimeling) Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy.
On June 11, 2022, the Grand Ole Opry made Charlie McCoy one of its permanent members. He was invited by Vince Gill, and inducted by Larry Gatlin. At age 83, he currently appears on a regular basis on that program as it is broadcast from Opryland in Nashville, TN.
“The harmonica has been very good to me. My mothers willingness to mail in fifty cents and a box top, and to put up with my huffing and puffing, has translated into a long career that has taken me all over the world. I’m glad she gave me the chance to get started.” -Charlie McCoy.
Authors Note:
I would like to note and recommend two books I made extensive use of in writing this feature on Charlie McCoy.
- Fifty Cents and a Box Top. Charlie McCoy with Travis Stimeling. (2017) WVU Press.
- That Thin Wild Mercury Sound (Dylan, Nashville, & the Making of Blonde on Blonde). Daryl Sanders (2019).
RECOMMENDED LISTENING – by the author.
A Charlie McCoy Jukebox.
One of the many pleasures of putting this piece together was getting to listen to so many good songs and pieces of music that feature the playing of Charlie McCoy. Another was the many great stories I found about various artists and producers who were on recording sessions with McCoy. Here’s a closer look and deeper dive into ten of these songs and stories, in no particular order. Note: At times I will refer to LFC, which stands for “Listen for Charlie”, and will comment on his playing and point out where in the song his playing is featured.
1. Elvis Presley – “Big Boss Man”. Charlie McCoy Harmonica. McCoy recorded 13 albums with Elvis Presley. He has said the recording of this song was one of his favorite sessions of all time, as it was not just an Elvis session, but he got to play harmonica on a Jimmy Reed song, a song he first learned in 1957, when he was 16. In fact, it was when young Charlie heard Reed’s version, that he retrieved his “50 cents and a box top” harmonica from a closet where it had been untouched for eight years. The song is from the Elvis movie Clambake, and “Big Boss Man” reached the Billboard Top 40 in October of 1967.
LFC. McCoy can first be heard at the :49 second mark, as the second verse begins. He takes a solo, 1:16 into the song.
Elvis Presley – Big Boss Man (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
2. Bob Dylan – “Desolation Row”. Charlie McCoy-Lead Guitar (Flamenco style). An important recording. In 1965 Charlie McCoy visited New York City to see the World’s Fair. His producer friend, Bob Johnston, at Columbia Records, told him to call when he got to town, he might have Broadway tickets for Charlie and his wife. During the call, Johnston invited McCoy to the studio to visit a session he was working on. When he got there, 24 year old Charlie McCoy was introduced to 24 year old Bob Dylan. Dylan surprised Charlie by immediately telling him, “I have your record ‘Harpoon Man’. I bought it probably 5 years ago.” McCoy was flattered and floored. Dylan then said, “I’m working on this song, why don’t you pick up that acoustic guitar and play along.” So Charlie, channeling the guitar playing of Grady Martin on Marty Robbins’ “El Paso”, sat down and…. Well, listen for yourself. They did two takes of this long song (eleven minutes plus) and McCoy displays versatility, touch and tone throughout. Amazing. LFC: Dylan strums the beginning and at the .04 second mark Charlie jumps right in and starts improvising. This is a song he is hearing for the first time, as he plays it. He is never boring and gives the song the backdrop and canvas it needs to do its work. The song ended up being the closing song on Dylan’s landmark, Highway 61 Revisited album.
After this recording, Dylan made the jump to Nashville to record his next three albums in Music City, and Charlie McCoy was the leader of the studio band.
Bob Dylan – Desolation Row (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
3. Roy Orbison – “Blue Bayou”. Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. This song reached #29 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1963. Linda Ronstadt had a big hit with it in the 1970’s. LFC. At the beginning of the first verse (.47 seconds) Charlie glides in and weaves his magic around Orbison’s magic voice.
4. Johnny Cash – “Orange Blossom Special”. Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. A classic example of Charlie using his harmonica to imitate other sounds and music. LFC. It opens with Charlie announcing the song like a rooster crowing, and then he provides the sounds of the locomotive chugging down the tracks. Later, in a show of harmonica mastery, he plays the part of “Orange Blossom Special” usually reserved for a fiddle. It is quite a showcase for McCoy’s playing. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Country Chart in 1965. Johnny Cash – Orange Blossom Special (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
5. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood- “Jackson” – Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. This song, written by West Virginian, Billy Edd Wheeler, was first done by Johnny and June Cash. Hazelwood and Sinatra took it to #14 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1967. LFC. McCoy jumps right in at the very start and plays (some might say, over plays) fast and furious all over this song. His energy is needed as Sinatra and Hazelwood are both below average singers. I think it’s Charlie and the songwriting that carries the day. (“Hotter than a pepper sprout”. I love that line.) Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra:Jackson. – YouTube
6. Tanya Tucker – “Delta Dawn”. Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. This song introduced Tanya Tucker to the country music world in 1972, on its way to being a top ten hit on the Billboard Country Chart. Charlie plays his trademark mournful, bluesy, harp riffs throughout and they serve the song well. Tanya Tucker used the talents of Charlie McCoy on four of her later albums. Delta Dawn (youtube.com)
7. Simon & Garfunkel – “The Boxer”. Charlie McCoy – Bass Harmonica. One of this author’s favorite songs, McCoy has remembered how Paul Simon was a perfectionist and told him exactly what to play for his bass harmonica parts. “The Boxer” got to #6 on the Top 100. LFC. Charlie’s first appearance is at the .36 second mark when his bass harmonica makes its presence known for only about .20 seconds. Simon then withholds Charlie until the 2:53 mark, on the line “In the clearing stands a boxer…” As mentioned, Simon micromanaged McCoy’s playing on this song. McCoy has also said Simon was right and a genius. Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer (Audio) (youtube.com)
8. Johnny Paycheck -”Take This Job and Shove It” – Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. This recording was a reunion of sorts as back in 1958, when Charlie was playing rock ‘n’ roll in Miami, he crossed paths with a talented young singer named Donnie Young. In 1964, Donny Young officially became Johnny Paycheck. LFC. Classic McCoy, bar room blues and his harp dances in and out of this blue collar classic. At .42 seconds Charlie begins to weave his way into the song. Johnny Paycheck – Take This Job And Shove It (Audio) (youtube.com)
9. Bob Dylan – “Rainy Day Women 12 & 35”. Charlie McCoy – Trumpet. This classic Dylan tune comes from the Blonde on Blonde album that he recorded in Nashville in 1966. The song title is rather cryptic, as it was meant to be. Most people know this song as “Everybody Must Get Stoned”, as that is the payoff phrase to the chorus. LFC. Dylan decided at the last minute he wanted to add a trumpet and a trombone to this song. Charlie could play the trumpet and knew a trombone player and he could get on a short notice. There they are, a horn section, at the top of the song, and they play throughout like they are having fun.. McCoy said the direction was to sound like a drunken, Salvation Army band. Mission accomplished. Bob Dylan – Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
10. Charlie McCoy – “Today I Started Loving You Again” – Charlie McCoy – Harmonica. Charlie won a Grammy in 1973 for his instrumental cover of this classic Merle Haggard song. Charlie McCoy ~Today I Started Loving You Again~ (youtube.com)
Photo Sources:
Charlie- Red Shirt at mic. Source: It’s Psychedelic Baby.
Charlie playing, purple shirt & background. Source:It’s Psychedelic Baby.
Charlie and the Escorts, Charlie on bass. Source: Country Music Hall of Fame.
Charlie, hands raised, on Mountain Stage. Source: No Depression Magazine.
Rock and Roll Charlie McCoy-1958. Source: Country Music Hall of Fame.
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