Tom Collins

Bernie Tom Collins (born May 30, 1942) is an American music producer and publisher in Nashville, Tennessee who has received three CMA Awards as Producer of the Year, and seven Grammy nominations. He produced a steady stream of country music hits over a 30-year span from artists including Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Sylvia, Tom T. Hall, Jim Ed Brown, James Galway, Marie Osmond, and Steve Wariner. Collins served as chairman of the Board of the CMA in 1979 and 1980.

In 1982 alone, Collins produced four number one country hits: "Nobody" (Sylvia); "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World" and "Any Day Now" (Ronnie Milsap); and "'Till You're Gone" (Barbara Mandrell). His publishing Company, Tom Collins Music, received BMI's Robert J. Burton Award in 1983 for "Most Performed Song of the Year", "Nobody", by Sylvia. During the period from 1970 to 1990, Collins' catalog holdings grew to make him one of Nashville's most successful independent producers. He attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and took scientific courses with the idea of attending dental school, but was always interested in music.

Though Collins received a Bachelor of Science degree, Pride achieved enormous success in country music, received a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. At that time, Milsap was living in Memphis, Tennessee and had been performing for about three years at a nightclub called "T.J.'s". He had already landed two or three record deals, but had enjoyed little success and was frustrated about a lack of progress in his career. Tom Collins heard Milsap perform in Memphis and offered a proposal, entailing Milsap moving to Nashville, embracing country music, signing with a new label, and the potential of booking a Nashville venue for live performances. Collins would produce the recordings, Jerry Bradley would sign him to the RCA record label, and Jack Johnson would be his manager. To do so, Milsap had to buy his way out of an existing management contract. Milsap stated, "I lost my house, everything I had worked for, and was $20,000 in debt. I came to Nashville broke, busted and in high spirits that I could make something of myself". These songs were released on an album called "Where My Heart Is" – Milsap's first album to chart, reaching #5 on the Billboard country charts. In 1975, Collins and Johnson won CMA's Producer of the year award for their collaboration on this recording. Collins, partnering with Charley Pride, bought Pi-Gem song publishing. Pi-Gem Music was sold to Welk Music Group in 1981, after which Collins formed his own company, "Tom Collins Music, Inc.". Some of the top songwriters at Pi-Gem went with Collins in his new endeavor, notably Grammy-nominated writers Kye Fleming and Dennis Morgan.

It was an advantage for Collins to have the Fleming/Morgan writers working with him on a daily basis. Fleming stated, "If he's cut a couple of songs on somebody and all of a sudden he says we need a song that's 'more country' than this, or 'more pop' or whatever to fill out an album, then he can tell us."

The song ultimately produced was "Smoky Mountain Rain" – one of Milsap's signature songs and a number one hit on both the country charts and the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the "100 Greatest Country Songs of all Time". "Smoky Mountain Rain" was chosen by the Tennessee State Legislature in 2010 as the eighth official state song. This was only one of Milsap's 40 number one hits produced by Tom Collins, which also include: "What a Difference You've Made in My Life", "Daydreams About Night Things", "Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "She Keeps the Home Fires Burning", "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Stranger in My House", "Pure Love", and "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me".

Barbara Mandrell In the mid-1970s, future Hall of Famer Barbara Mandrell had had some successful songs but wanted something more. She became a client of Collins, changed labels, and things began to improve. In 1975, Collins produced her first top five record with the single "Standing Room Only". Collins steered her to a more commercial "pop" sound, sometimes referred to as "countrypolitan". Collins stated, "we created our own sound and style with Barbara Mandrell ... she is country ... but she is selling in almost every market existing, having hit Billboard's Soul, Country, Pop, and Easy Listening charts.". Collins also said that country music tends run in cycles between more traditional sound and more pop and that "you need to stay just a half-step ahead of the trend". She repeatedly asked Collins if she could make a record for him. She was 35 pounds overweight at 5' 5", wore no makeup, and had a history of surviving on a diet of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and cornflakes. Kirby chose to appear professionally only by her first name, Sylvia, and recorded her first album, Drifter, in 1981. The title song went to number one.

Three other songs from "Drifter" reached the top 10: "The Matador" (#7), "Heart on the Mend" (#8) and "Tumbleweed" (#10). Her second album, Just Sylvia, featured the song "Nobody" which rose to number one on the country charts and was a crossover hit which reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also won her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and was awarded BMI's Song of the Year for receiving more radio air play than any other song that year.

Later years Collins acquired the song catalog of Tom T. Hall in 1991. In 1999 he sold Tom Collins Music, Hallnote Music, and Collins Court Music to Acuff-Rose Publications. As of 2015, all songs under the umbrella of these catalogs belong to Sony/ATV Music Publishing.