Ray Stevens: It's the birthday of John Schneider...

Hello all once again! Earlier today Ray Stevens posted a clip of John Schneider from an episode of CabaRay Nashville. Today is the birthday of John Schneider and the video is a performance of "I've Been Around Enough to Know". The song was John's first of four number one country hits. John had become an internationally recognized face due to the action/adventure series he starred in, 127 episodes as Bo Duke on the 1979-1985 series, Dukes of Hazzard. He became a country music singer in the early 1980s...with his first hit song being his rendition of "It's Now or Never" in 1981. John's recording, largely due to the original being tied to Elvis Presley, also became a pop and adult-contemporary hit. John's first four albums and first series of single releases were on an independent label called Scotti Brothers during the years 1981 through 1983. His recording career soared the following year when he joined MCA Records. If you know your Ray Stevens history then you're already aware that Ray and John were label mates on MCA for a period of time. John's tenure on MCA lasted 3 years (1984 through 1987) while Ray's lasted 5 years (1984 through 1989). John's recording of "I've Been Around Enough to Know" kicked off a run of 10 consecutive Top-40 country hits that ran until the fall of 1987. There were 9 singles peaking inside the Top-10, with 4 reaching number one. John continued performing at country music venues throughout the rest of the 1980s and frequently in the 1990s but his acting career remained solid...appearing in numerous television programs and movies of the week. 

His next major role in a weekly series arrived in 2001...cast as Jonathan Kent on Smallville. He appeared in 105 episodes during the program's first 5 seasons and then appeared infrequently in 2010 and 2011. Throughout the 2000s he continued to show up as a guest on television series and star in television movies...landing his third major television series in 2013, the soap opera The Haves and The Have Nots. In that series, which aired for 8 seasons until just last year on Oprah Winfrey's network, he co-starred as Jim Cryer. A character some would call an anti-hero or more to the point: duplicitous, amoral, adulterous, sleazy, and no good.

Well, of course, John was simply playing a character in all of those television shows and movies...but he's being himself on this guest appearance on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...and here's his performance of "I've Been Around Enough to Know"...