Talk:The Statler Brothers

Mistaken identity
As of May 6th, 2024, the photo depicting the four band members lists Lew DeWitt as the member on the farthest to the right, despite the image featuring Jimmy Fortune.

Johnny Cash
can you do an article about the statler brothers without mentioning johnny cash? (nah you can't!) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.65.87.155 (talk • contribs)

Lew DeWitt
The Statler Brothers's sound and priorities were changed completely after Lew DeWitt left the group and Jimmy Misfortune replaced him. The group, which was once deserving of what Vonnegut said about them in the article, went to more sappy songs, with Jimmy Misfortune leading much of the downfall. The Statler Brothers turned into a mud puddle of maudlin songs, reaching their barf-inducing nadir with "You Are My Only Love."

They are really two different groups- The Statler Brothers including Lew DeWitt, and the Statler Brothers WITHOUT Lew DeWitt. During Misfortune's tenure (he never seemed as if he really ever fit in), the Statler Brothers sank into pretentiousness and boring, bathetic songs. SLOW BALLADS! The Statler Brothers didn't do SLOW BALLADS before Jimmy Misfortune joined the group! Yech! Mushy ballads. The only songs that I liked after Jimmy Misfortune joined the group were "Oh Baby My" and "Atlanta Blue". As long as Jimmy Misfortune was more or less in the background, so that you could forget that he was on the record.

I guess they wanted a high tenor, and they tried to get someone who sounded sort of like DeWitt, but they didn't succeed. DeWitt had that endearing, "yodely" kind of voice. Jimmy Misfortune simply sounded like a woman.

Considering that the Statler Brothers were formed in 1955 with Harold, Don, Phil and Lew, and the four of them were what the group was about for the next 27 years, don't you think that the record album shown should be one with the ORIGINAL members- the ones that FOUNDED the group and toiled for years to make a name for themselves, and not including someone who just slid in when the Statler Brothers name was already an established one? Jimmy Misfortune, the pretender with the effeminate, crappy voice? Also, I believe that a record album isn't supposed to, by Wiketeria rules, be used for a photo. It'll be deleted pretty soon. So it would behoove the article to have a photo of the four ORIGINAL members- Harold, Don, Phil, and Lew. And WITHOUT Jimmy Misfortune (Blecch). Jim watkins today? 03:08, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

My God, tell us what you REALLY think?!!?!?! And by the way, the Statlers DID do slow ballads while Lew DeWitt was a member (and a "ballad" doesn't have to be a sappy love song -- I'd call "The Official Historian On Shirley Jean Berrell" a ballad, but it's far from slow). Check out songs like "Pictures", "The Class Of '57", "Your Picture In The Paper", "Who Am I To Say", "Here We Are Again", "Silver Medals And Sweet Memories", "I'll Even Love You Better Than I Did Then", and "New York City"....that's about half of both Best Of albums Volumes 1 and 2...and I'd even throw in "I'll Go To My Grave Loving You" for good measure. I give you your point...the quality of their new music seemed to go downhill after the success of "Elizabeth", even though I do believe that song was undoubtedly a Statler masterpiece with the harmonies and overall arrangement of the tune. But that probably had more to do with a changing musical climate than much else. The Statlers couldn't stay current doing what they do and trying to record current music. It happens to all groups who have been around for a long time, and not just in country music. For example, The Who tour constantly and KISS is a touring entity now, neither has recorded an album of NEW material in well over 10 years because the market just isn't there. Jimmy Fortune was not bad live (I saw them twice in my younger years) and the old material translated well live with him. But to make a blanket statement about the Statler Brothers not doing slow ballads while Lew DeWitt was a member is, in my estimation, wholly incorrect. 76.214.213.214 (talk) 16:10, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Boy, is that JimWatkins guy a dick or what? He manages to completely overlook the fact that one of the Statler's biggest hits "Elizabeth" was written by Jimmy Fortune. (And by the way, Lew's vibrato sometimes gets on my nerves...) And by the way, JimWatkins, it's "Oh, Baby MINE", not "Oh, Baby MY".

I was fortunate enough to see the Statler Brothers with Lew DeWitt once and three times after he left the group. They were always a good show. My favorite albums will always be their early ones featuring Lew. his voice was unique and it helped make the Statlers unique. I continued to be a fan once they added Jimmy Fortune, but of my top 10 Statler Bros. songs, 9 were recorded prior to Fortune joining the group. I stopped following the group as closely an album or two after DeWitt left and as a result never caught them on their farewell tour. I wish I had. My wife and I bumped into a guitar player for the group in a Cracker Barrell restaurant off of I-95 just outside Staunton. He had recently left the group. He said it was tough work with all the traveling and it didn't pay as well as one might expect. He said the group selected Fortune as a replacement for his song writing ability and not his voice (I always felt they could have done better voice-wise). You could tell he felt he was underpayed and did not enjoy his later years with the group, but he did not bad mouth them at all.

Most Awarded?
I have to challenge that they are the most awarded act in country music. Brooks and Dunn have won 27 Academy of Country Music Awards, 3 American Music Awards, 17 Country Music Association Awards, 2 Grammys; Alabama has won 12 ACM, 20 AMA, 9 CMA and 2 Grammys. I did notice that the Statler Brothers won 3 American Music Awards that are not listed on their page and they won a lot of the Music City News Awards in the late 70s. I still think they fall short of the above two acts total awards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.182.222.209 (talk) 01:02, 23 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed the statement is subjective and likely outdated. The source does not date the article.  I'll change the wording to one of the most. Tomsv 98 (talk) 14:03, 4 March 2014 (UTC)