Mac Davis

Mac Davis has a track record as one of America’s most popular entertainers, a countrypolitan-styled singer and actor who found considerable success in both fields. In 1965, he began composing his own songs, with Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Lou Rawls, and Kenny Rogers & the First Edition among the artists recording his work. In 1968, Elvis Presley recorded Davis’ “A Little Less Conversation,” the theme song for the current television hit Las Vegas. After notching a Top 40 hit with Davis’s “Memories,” Presley reached the Top Five in 1969 with the songwriter’s “In the Ghetto.” Davis also arranged the music for Presley’s first television special before signing his own recording contract in 1970. In that year, he released his first chart single, “Whoever Finds This, I Love You,” from his debut album, Song Painter. In 1972, Davis scored a number one pop hit with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” which also reached the country Top 20. His crossover success continued throughout the decade, with singles like 1974’s “Stop and Smell the Roses,” 1975’s “Burnin’ Thing,” and the following year’s “Forever Lovers” scoring with listeners in both camps. Davis’s success continued in the early ’80s: “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” the title track of his 1980 album, was the first of four consecutive Top Ten country hits that culminated with his biggest country single, “Hooked on Music,” the next year. In 1990, Davis co-authored Dolly Parton’s hit “White Limozeen”; that same year, he also took over the title role in the Broadway hit The Will Rogers Follies. Will Write Songs for Food, his first LP in nearly a decade, appeared in 1994.