July 30th: On this day

1952
Born on this day in Tracy, Minnesota was songwriter and music publisher Dennis Morgan. His first songwriting success was "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed", a #1 hit for Barbara Mandrell in 1978. Morgan was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Foundation's Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

1955
Johnny Cash recorded his first version of "Folsom Prison Blues" at the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison).

1958
Born on this day in Jacksonville, Texas, was Neal McCoy, country music singer. His 1993 singles "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It both topped the US Country charts.

1958
Johnny Cash started recoding session for his fourth album Greatest! Six out of the twelve songs featured on the album became singles, with "Get Rhythm" topping the Country charts and becoming the most successful one.

1964
Born on this day in California was Banjo player Ron Block. He joined Alison Krauss + Union Station in 1991, performing on "When You Say Nothing At All," plus The Soggy Bottom Boys' "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" and Vince Gill's "High Lonesome Sound."

1971
Born on this day, was Gordie Sampson, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer from Big Pond, Nova Scotia. He has written songs for Carrie Underwood ("Jesus, Take the Wheel", "Just A Dream", "Get Out Of This Town"), Martina McBride ("If I Had Your Name", "You're Not Leavin Me"), LeAnn Rimes ("Long Night", "Save Myself"), and George Canyon ("My Name").

1983
George Jones was at #1 on the Country chart with "I Always Get Lucky With You", a song written by Merle Haggard. The track gave Jones his ninth and final chart topper.

1985
Alabama became the first country act to go quadruple-platinum, as their Mountain Music and Feels So Right albums were certified for shipments of 4 million copies.

1986
Variety magazine reported that RCA had dropped John Denver from its roster after the release of his single, "What Are We Making Weapons For". Variety said the song upset the record company's new owner, General Electric, one of the largest defense contractors in the US.

2003
Sam Phillips the founder of Sun Records and studio died of respiratory failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 1940s, Phillips worked as a DJ for Muscle Shoals, Alabama radio station WLAY. Phillips recorded what some consider to be the first rock and roll record, "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats in 1951. He discovered Elvis Presley, worked with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Ike Turner, B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis.

2015
American country music singer, Lynn Anderson, died aged 67. The multi-award-winning singer scored the 1970 US #3 & 1971 UK #3 single "Rose Garden", and charted 12 #1's, 18 Top 10, and more than 50 Top 40 hits. Anderson was the first female country artist to win the American Music Award (in 1974), as well as the first to headline and sellout Madison Square Garden that same year.

2018
Morgan Wallen released "Whiskey Glasses" a song written by Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish. It was first included on his 2016 EP The Way I Talk, and was released as the third single from his 2018 studio album, If I Know Me.

2020
American singer Randy Barlow died of cancer age of 77. Between 1976 and 1983, he released four albums and charted twenty singles on the US country charts including "Slow and Easy", "No Sleep Tonight", "Fall in Love with Me Tonight", and "Sweet Melinda".