Chords for Conway Twitty Life & Times Pt.2

[E] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] While Harold Jenkins may have dreamed of summer days on the baseball field, the United States Army [G] had other ideas.
In March of [C] 1954, Harold [G] became a [F] soldier.
_ He spent two years stationed in Yokohama, Japan, and [C] once again, Harold turned to music.
_ _ [Eb]
[Em] He formed a band called the [Bb] Cimarron, and they entered the [C] Army Talent Show, and had they won, they would have won an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
[Bb] They came in second, so they [C] didn't.
[Dm] _ [Gm] But the band [Eb] continued playing [C] throughout Japan.
[D] On March [G] 14, _ [Bb] 1956, Harold was [Dm] discharged [G] from the service.
Upon returning home, he was immediately overwhelmed by the record industry's newest sensation, Elvis Presley.
_ _ As soon as I heard the first Elvis Presley record, it really, [Cm] really [F] stirred me up, [Cm] because it was a mixture of gospel, [Eb] blues, and country, is what it was.
And that was [F] exactly what I grew up singing.
[C] He was a tremendous influence on Conway, because it made him change careers.
[N] He threw down the baseball [Eb] bat, the glove, and picked up the guitar, and the rest is history, as he'd say. _ _ _ _
In _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _
1956, Harold arrived in Memphis, and was signed on Sun Records, Elvis's label.
But not having established his own style, and overshadowed by the King, he was soon dropped by Sun.
Harold then moved to Mercury Records, but after a few recordings, he again was dropped.
_ _ I learned a good lesson from that experience with Mercury, and I really realized the importance of the song.
I think that really began to come to the front of my mind, at that point in my life, [Ebm] _ stronger than anything else, the song.
_ And it didn't take it long to become the most important [Eb] thing.
_ Soon after, Harold was offered a contract with MGM Records.
But first, he decided he needed to make a dramatic change.
_ He felt like [N] Harold Jenkins was not an eye-catcher.
He felt like disc jockeys were getting records at this point in time from many, many people every day.
So that's why he decided to change it.
_ And he got a map down, and came up with Conway and Twitty.
From a map, a road map.
Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas.
_ _ I remember a lot of people, a lot of my friends in school, laughing, you know, and pointing, and snickering, and saying,
Conway Twitty's kid, Conway Twitty's kid.
But it wasn't too long after that, they didn't snicker so much. _
Not long after he changed his name and signed his new deal with MGM [A] Records in Nashville, Conway [D] Twitty's career [Eb] [Am] skyrocketed.
I went in the studio and cut some [G] stuff, if only make-believe being one of [A] them.
_ Another song called I'll Try.
[Fm] And they [G] decided that I'll Try was an up-tempo record, and that was what they were going to [D] release.
[Bb] Much to [F] Conway's dismay, he knew the [C] hit was It's Only Make [G]-Believe.
[Bb] I'll Try came out, [C] It's Only Make-Believe was the B-side.
_ [G] The record floundered.
[Abm] Conway quit the business in despair.
But Conway's sense about It's Only Make-Believe soon proved to be correct.
_ I get this _ phone call one day, and it was from a disc jockey in Columbus, Ohio.
_ [F]
He tells me that I've got the biggest [Gb] hit that they've ever had in Columbus, Ohio. _
[G] And I couldn't [B] believe what he was saying.
He was telling me how big this record was, how big Conway Twitty was going to be, and all [Gb] this and that and the other.
I couldn't [B] believe it.
My wife will leave [Abm] _ me someday. _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _
[Gb] _ [Abm] Conway and his drummer Jack Nance had written the song in 20 minutes.
Now, after years of struggle, Conway Twitty was an [Gb] overnight sensation.
Even the king himself paid homage to [E] Conway when the two men met.
_ When he walked in [Dbm] the room, Elvis started singing It's [B] Only Make-Believe.
It was supposedly one of Elvis' [E] favorite songs.
And, you know, a lot of people thought [Gb] it was Elvis doing that song, [Dbm] that it was Elvis recording under another name.
[B] _ _
Everything came together.
Conway Twitty was a genuine teen idol.
It's Only Make-Believe was a number one hit and eventually sold over 8 million copies.
_ Like Elvis, Conway parlayed his success into [C] film roles.
Conway was so popular, he was the role model for the [G] 1960 [C] Broadway show Bye Bye Birdie, which was later [Em] made into a movie.
Bye now.
[E] _ [Am] _ [E] _ _
_ [A] The _ show parodied his unique style and unquestioned success.
_ But Conway was not [G] truly happy.
[C] _ _ It's almost, looking back, it's almost like a dream.
It was like it was another [G] thing, you know.
It was, it happened to somebody else and not [D] me.
[Em] I was gone like four and five months [A] at a time.
And then I'd come home for a week or [D] two and I'd go out for another four or five months.
That's the way it [G] was.
[Am] I wasn't [G] home when [C] most of my kids were born.
_ _ [F]
[C] It was mostly just one night, [G] night after night, going into the club and playing.
[C] _ Caught up in the rock and roll field.
[G] He didn't have much time to himself or to his family or anybody else [Bm] because [Em] his manager and people kept him [A] going [F] all the time. _