Favorite Big Songs: There's a Big Wheel (#8)

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Continuing with the country music theme (and the Country Music Hall of Fame), I move from the "little" song list to the "big" list and today's song. Again, just by coincidence, these songs popped up on the day when the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees for 2018 were announced. It doesn't bother me, of course. The more country music, the merrier! I'm sure not everyone shares my love and appreciation, though. Here's the next song. #8: There's a Big Wheel - Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper This was quite the hit for the West Virginia duo Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper in the late 50s. Their career traveled from the Wheeling Jamboree to the Grand Ole Opry. Stoney was an accomplished fiddler, and oh, man, Wilma Lee's plain mountain voice could knock walls down. They were never "big" enough (no pun intended) to make it to the Hall of Fame as members. However, the man who wrote the song -- Don Gibson -- definitely was. This gospel-themed song talks quite a bit about God without ever mentioning "God" in the lyrics. Wilma Lee & Stoney did a number of gospel albums (their version of "Walking My Lord Up Calvary's Hill" is spine-tingling), so this fit in their repertoire quite nicely. Stoney died of a heart attack in 1977. Wilma Lee carried on as a member of the Opry until suffering a stroke that forced her into retirement in 2001. She died in 2011. Their daughter, Carol Lee Cooper, was the leader of the Opry background singers the Carol Lee Singers as well as host of the Midnite Jamboree at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop for decades. If you watch the video linked below, you'll see the bass player beating on his bass instead of playing it. That's because the original recording of this song featured a bass drum. (You'll also see a very young Curtis McPeake on banjo, but that probably only interests me. ) There's a Big Wheel Written by Don Gibson Recorded by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper From There's a Big Wheel, 1959 He's a whole lot bigger than you: