Biography

Watson was born in Palestine, Texas, in 1943. He began his music career in the 1960s, performing in local clubs at night while working in a Houston auto body shop during the day. He recorded for only a few small, regional record labels having a regional hit "Bad Water", until 1974, when Capitol Records picked up his album Love in the Hot Afternoon and released it nationally. The title track, a mid-tempo ballad in three-quarter time, was released in June 1975, and it quickly reached Number three on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart.

Watson's national success continued throughout the late 1970s and early 1990s, as he recorded several Billboard top-40 hits, including "Where Love Begins," "Paper Rosie," "Should I Go Home (or Should I Go Crazy)," "Nothing Sure Looked Good on You," and "Farewell Party," which was released in 1979 and quickly became Watson's signature song and the namesake of his Farewell Party Band.

In February 2012, Watson, celebrated his 50th year in the music business with the release of Best of the Best, 25 Greatest Hits (his very first single on radio "If It Was That Easy" released in 1962). The collection of songs were re-recorded to recreate the originals as closely as possible. The project was produced by Dirk Johnson and released on Watson's own Fourteen Carat Music label. In June 2014, Watson released an eleven track CD "My Heroes Have Always Been Country," all pure, classic country music, covering hits by some of his musical heroes such as Merle Haggard, Ray Price and Lefty Frizzell. On February 26, 2016 Gene Watson released his 33rd studio album titled "Real.Country.Music." This 13-track CD contains traditional country music and the first single release is "Enough For You", a song written by Kris Kristofferson.

Gene Watson was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002 and inducted into the inaugural class of the Houston Music Hall of Fame in August 2013.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions		Label
1974	Gene Watson	—	—	Wide World
1975	Love in the Hot Afternoon	5	—	Capitol
1976	Because You Believed in Me	24	—
1977	Paper Rosie	22	—
	Beautiful Country	32	—
1978	The Best	29	12
	Reflections	23	14
1979	Should I Come Home	16	—
1980	No One Will Ever Know	45	—
1981	The Best 2	—	—
	Between This Time and the Next Time	38	—	MCA
	Old Loves Never Die	57	—
1982	This Dream's on Me	27	—
1983	Sometimes I Get Lucky	16	—
	Little By Little	34	—
1984	Heartaches and Love and Stuff	21	—
1985	Greatest Hits	—	—
	Memories to Burn	35	—	Epic
1986	Starting New Memories	49	—
1987	Honky Tonk Crazy	54	—
1989	Back in the Fire	42	—	Warner Bros.
1990	At Last	74	—
1992	In Other Words	—	—	Broadland
1993	Uncharted Mind	—	—	Step One
1996	The Good Ole Days	—	—
1997	Jesus Is All I Need	—	—
	A Way to Survive	—	—
2001	From the Heart	—	—	Row Music Group
2003	Sings	—	—	Compendia
2004	Gospel Side	—	—
2005	Then and Now	—	—	Koch
2007	In a Perfect World	—	—	Shanachie
2009	A Taste of the Truth	—	—
2011	Your Money and My Good Looks	56	—	Upper Management
2012	Best of the Best: 25 Greatest Hits	64	—	Fourteen Carat Music
2014	My Heroes Have Always Been Country	48	—
2016	Real Country Music	—	—

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions		Album
1975	"Bad Water"	87	—	Love in the Hot Afternoon
	"Love in the Hot Afternoon"	3	3
	"Where Love Begins"	5	4
1976	"You Could Know as Much About a Stranger"	10	42
	"Because You Believed in Me"	20	—	Because You Believed in Me
	"Her Body Couldn't Keep You (Off My Mind)"	52	—
1977	"Paper Rosie"	3	1	Paper Rosie
	"The Old Man and His Horn"	11	9	Beautiful Country
1978	"I Don't Need a Thing at All"	8	4
	"Cowboys Don't Get Lucky All the Time"	11	14
	"One Sided Conversation"	8	6	Reflections
1979	"Farewell Party"	5	9
	"Pick the Wildwood Flower"	5	2
	"Should I Come Home (Or Should I Go Crazy)"	3	6	Should I Come Home
1980	"Nothing Sure Looked Good on You"	4	3
	"Bedroom Ballad"	18	43
	"Raisin' Cane in Texas"	15	53	No One Will Ever Know
	"No One Will Ever Know"	13	22
1981	"Any Way You Want Me"	33	—	Any Which Way You Can
	"Between This Time and the Next Time"	17	8	Between This Time and the Next Time
	"Maybe I Should Have Been Listening"	23	12
	"Fourteen Carat Mind"	1	5	Old Loves Never Die
1982	"Speak Softly (You're Talking to My Heart)"	9	4
	"This Dream's on Me"	8	11	This Dream's on Me
	"What She Don't Know Won't Hurt Her"	5	3
1983	"You're Out Doing What I'm Here Doing Without"	2	5	Sometimes I Get Lucky
	"Sometimes I Get Lucky and Forget"	9	6
	"Drinkin' My Way Back Home"	10	8	Little By Little
1984	"Forever Again"	10	18
	"Little by Little"	33	21
	"Got No Reason Now for Goin' Home"	7	15	Heartaches and Love and Stuff
1985	"One Hell of a Heartache"	43	38
	"Cold Summer Day in Georgia"	24	22	Memories to Burn
	"Memories to Burn"	5	2
1986	"Carmen"	32	27
	"Bottle of Tears"	50	40	Starting New Memories
	"Everything I Used to Do"	29	27
1987	"Honky Tonk Crazy"	43	30	Honky Tonk Crazy
	"Everybody Needs a Hero"	28	46
1988	"Don't Waste It on the Blues"	5	*	Back in the Fire
1989	"Back in the Fire"	20	24
	"The Jukebox Played Along"	24	40
	"The Great Divide"	41	—
1991	"At Last"	61	59	At Last
	"You Can't Take It with You When You Go"	67	56
1993	"One and One and One"	66	92	In Other Words
1997	"Change Her Mind"	44	90	The Good Ole Days
	"No Goodbyes"	73	—
2009	"We've Got a Pulse"	—	—	A Taste of the Truth
	"Staying Together"	—	—

[ Source: Wikipedia ]