Give it up to Dickey Lee

Dickey Lee, my man. You made it to 73!

When you were producing those "death discs'' back in the early Sixties we figured you must have had, well, a death wish.

Two of your biggest hits were "Patches'' and "Laurie (Strange Things Happen).'' Some radio stations even banned them because of their dark messages. "Patches'' was about a poor girl your parents wouldn't let you marry, a sweet girl who tragically drowned, and you ended the song with:

Patches oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you
It may not be right But I'll join you tonight
Patches I'm coming to you

And "Laurie'', well, that was really spooky. You met her at a dance, kissed her goodnight and gave her your sweater because she was cold. Then you found out from her father that she had been dead for a year!

We loved those tragic songs you wrote and performed. We even liked "I Saw Linda Yesterday'' although that may have had something to do with the girl down the street who made our hearts go "up down like a merry-go-round.''

But we were so enthralled with your tunes of teen angst that we didn't realize you wrote one of greatest country songs of all time. In fact, we can't remember a song that was No. 1 for three different artists.

"She Thinks I Still Care'' is the song, and nobody did it better than George Jones. But Anne Murray made it her first chart-topper (although she changed it to "He''), and Elvis also scored a No. 1 with it, even though it was a flip side to "Moody Blue.''

If you count all three -- and why not? -- you've had eight No. 1 songs. Pretty impressive for a guy who chilled us with:

A strange force drew me to the graveyard
I stood in the cold
I saw the shadows gleam
And then I saw my sweater
Lying there upon her grave

Strange things really do happen in this world.