Profile of Boudleaux Bryant on Famous Like Me

Felice Bryant (born August 7, 1925 - died April 22, 2003) and Boudleaux Bryant (born February 13, 1920 - died June 25, 1987) were an American wife and husband country music songwriting team who were also at the forefront of the evolution of pop music.

He was born Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant in Shellman, Georgia and was trained as a classical violinist. During the 1937-38 season he performed with the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra but had more interest in country fiddling and joined a western music band. In 1945 he met Matilda Genevieve Scaduto while performing at a hotel in her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and their meeting resulted in a marriage of two future Hall of Fame songwriters.

Felice, as Matilda Genevieve Scaduto's husband affectionately called her, came from an Italian family of music lovers and although she had done some singing, she was a poet at heart with a natural gift for writing songs that combined with her husband's music expertise, led to them becoming one of the most successful writing teams in modern music.

During the first years of their marriage, the Bryants struggled to make a living and, living in a mobile home, Felice passed some of her spare time writing songs, eventually accumulating a collection of upwards of eighty tunes. They solicited a number of country music artists in an attempt to sell their compositions but were either ignored or politely rejected until singer Little Jimmy Dickens recorded "Country Boy". The song went to No. 7 on the 1948 country charts but more importantly, its success opened the door to a working relationship with Fred Rose at Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1950, the Bryants moved to Nashville to work full time at song writing.

The Bryants wrote more songs for Little Jimmy Dickens as well as for popular country artist Carl Smith and at the same time released four 45 Rpm singles of their own that net with modest success. In 1957 the Bryants came to national prominence in both country music and pop music when they wrote a string of hugely successful songs for the Everly Brothers followed by successes for others such as Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly. Their prolific and quality compositions would produce hit records for many stars from a variety of musical genres including Tony Bennett, Sonny James, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, Nazareth, Jim Reeves, Leo Sayer, Simon and Garfunkel, Sarah Vaughan, Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello, Count Basie, Dean Martin, Ray Charles and others.

The Bryants eventually moved to a home not far from Nashville on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee near friends Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. In 1978, they moved to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where they purchased the "Rocky Top Village Inn" in the Great Smoky Mountains. In 1979 they released their own album called A Touch of Bryant. Of their more than 1,500 recorded songs, "Rocky Top" was adopted as the State song of Tennessee in 1982 and the fight song for the University of Tennessee sports teams.

During their distinguished career, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant earned a total of 59 BMI Country, Pop, and R&B music awards. In 1972 they were inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, in 1986 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 1991, the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Boudleaux Bryant passed away in 1987. Felice Bryant remained active writing songs and in 1991 the Nashville Arts Foundation honored her with their "Living Legend Award." She passed away in 2003. They are interred together in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.

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