“Strange isn’t it?...Each man’s life touches so many other lives..."
In the mid 80's, the West Virginia Dept of Tourism went looking for a song they could turn into a jingle while it remained a song, along the lines of what Sunkist soda did years ago when they used "Good Vibrations" to sell orange soda.
I had the opportunity to submit a piece that, as fate would have it, was, in fact, chosen.
The song was recorded by Kathy Mattea who was, at the time, enjoying a career peak in country pop music and was, because of that fame and her West Virginia native status, the "spokesperson" for tourism in the area.
http://www.wvculture.org/history/av/matteakathy256.wmv
Kathy got a nice career bump and a new Chevrolet SUV every year from a WV dealership.
I got two hundred bucks as a subcontracted writer.
Material acquisition aside, I enjoyed the privilege of knowing that something I wrote one afternoon would always be floating around out there in the pop culture.
As Miley would say..."purty cool..."
Fast forward twenty years.
Said song still apparently resonates with West Virginians...as evidenced by this video I surfed upon showing the attendees at the 2009 4H Older Members Conference raising their voices in song as tribute, honoring both their state...and a California born, Louisiana/Tennessee hometown boy who lucked into having an opportunity to write a song that could be turned into a jingle while it remained a song.
Future Googlers won't find me listed as the composer of any of pop music's seminal works.
And I'll never even be a household name in West Virginia.
But at least one person in this life will know how I feel.
Clarence Goodbody.
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