Harlan Howard

Harlan Perry Howard (September 8, 1927 – March 3, 2002) was an American songwriter, principally in country music. In a career spanning six decades, Howard is credited with writing more than 4,000 songs, over 100 of which reached country music's Top 10.

Career Howard was born on September 8, 1927, in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up on a farm in Michigan. As a child, he listened to the Grand Ole Opry radio show. In later years, Howard recalled the personal formative influence of country music:

I was captured by the songs as much as the singer. They grabbed my heart. The reality of country music moved me. Even when I was a kid, I liked the sad songs… songs that talked about true life. I recognized this music as a simple plea. It beckoned me.

Howard completed only nine years of formal education, though he was an avid reader. When he was 12 years of age, he began writing songs, "an enthusiasm fueled by an appetite for books and an ear for a telling phrase." went to No. 2 on the country music chart in late 1958. A year later Ray Price had a major country hit with "Heartaches By The Number".

Howard was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame also in 1997. He died in Nashville in 2002, at the age of 74, and was buried in Nashville City Cemetery.

On March 3, 2023, Willie Nelson released his 73rd studio album I Don't Know A Thing About Love: The Songs of Harlan Howard. Produced by Buddy Cannon, the album is a tribute to Harlan Howard.

Discography 1961: Harlan Howard Sings Harlan Howard 1965: All Time Favorite Country Songwriter 1967: Mr. Songwriter 1967: Down to Earth 1971: To the Silent Majority with Love 1981: Singer and Songwriter "Above and Beyond (the Call of Love)" "Blame It on Your Heart" (co-written with Kostas) "The Blizzard" "Busted" "Chokin' Kind" "Call Me Mr. In-Between" "Don't Call Me From a Honky Tonk Bar" "Don't Tell Me What To Do (I'll Love You Forever If I Want To)" (co-written with Max D. Barnes) "Everglades" "Evil off My Mind" "Evil on Your Mind" "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)" (co-written with Buck Owens) "Foolin' Round" (co-written with Buck Owens) "He/She Called Me Baby" "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" "Heartaches by the Number" "Heartbreak U.S.A." "Hurtin's All Over" "I Don't Believe I'll Fall in Love Today" "I Don't Know a Thing About Love (The Moon Song)" "I Don't Remember Loving You" (co-written with Robert Braddock) "I Fall to Pieces" "I Wish I Could Fall in Love Today" "I Won't Forget You" "It's All Over" (co-written with Jan Howard) "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" (co-written with Buck Owens) "The Key's in the Mailbox" "Life Turned Her That Way" "Mommy For a Day" (co-written with Buck Owens) "No Charge" "Odds And Ends" "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down" "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" "Say it Isn't So" (co-written with Nanci Griffith) "Second Hand Rose" (co-written with Grant Clarke and James Hanley) "She's a Little Bit Country" "Somebody Should Leave" (co-written with Chick Rains) "Someone Had to Teach You" ( co-written with Bill Hervey) "Somewhere Tonight" (co-written with Rodney Crowell) "Streets of Baltimore" (co-written with Tompall Glaser) "These Lips Don't Know How to Say Goodbye" "Three Steps to the Phone (Millions Of Miles)" "Time Won't Tell" (co-written with Beth Nielsen Chapman) "Too Many Rivers" "Under The Influence Of Love" (co-written with Buck Owens) "What A Merry Christmas This Could Be" "Why Not Me" (co-written with Brent Maher and Sonny Throckmorton) "You Comb Her Hair" (co-written with Hank Cochran) "You Took Him Off My Hands (Now Please Take Him Off My Mind)" (co-written with Skeets McDonald and Wynn Stewart) "Your Heart Turned Left and I Went Right" "Yours Love"

Personal life Howard was married numerous times, including to country singer Jan Howard.