Singer, songwriter, musician, Donald Eugene Gibson, was one of the most popular and influential forces in '50s and '60s country music, scoring numerous hit singles as a performer and a songwriter. Gibson's music touched on both traditional country and highly produced country-pop, which is part of the reason he had such a broad audience. For at least a decade after his first hit single, "Sweet Dreams," in 1956, (a crossover hit for Patsy Cline in 1963), he was a reliable hitmaker, and many of his songs have become country classics. They have been covered by a wide range of artists, including Ray Charles, Kitty Wells, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Ronnie Milsap.

He was born, in Shelby, North Carolina, on April 3, 1928, and was the youngest of five children of Solon and Mary Gibson. His father, a railroad worker, died when Gibson was just two years old, and his mother remarried in the early '40s. At that time, the family sur.....MORE.....(full Don Gibson biography) ←