It's not always easy to tell who is leading with a stage name. How do you even come up with just the right name? What rolls off the tongue just right and sticks in the brain where you won't forget it? It seems like a thankless headache but sometimes, it's essential. Marilyn Monroe, John Denver, Randy Travis, those look like star names on paper. Harold Jenkins? That just doesn't do the trick. Conway Twitty might work though.
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Appearing on The David Letterman Show, Twitty performs "Play Ruby Play" off of his 54th studio album in 1989 House on Old Lonesome Road. Afterwards, he sits down to talk a little about the album and digs into why he chose his stage name. Conway explains that the state of the business necessitates a name that seems marketable. What leaps off the page? Harold Jenkins is a fine enough name but it's not a star's name. So he thinks to himself, 'how can I get a name as cool as Elvis Presley?'
Conway Twitty Decides to Use a Stage Name Just Like Elvis to Get Radio Play
Elvis didn't have the problems that Conway Twitty had. That was his own name and he embraced it proudly. How could he grab radio's attention with a regular name like Harold Jenkins? So he knew what he had to do. "I thought, disc jockeys back in the '50s got so many records every week, they'd get 50 or 60 records, and they had to decide what they were gonna play and what they weren't gonna play. And I thought, well, maybe with an interesting name like Elvis Presley or something like that, they might play it," Conway Twitty explains.
Once Twitty firmly confirms his decision to come up with a stage name, he wracks his brain trying to figure something out. Then, in an act of sheer desperation, he looks to different towns down south, cobbles two of em together, and calls it a day. "And once they do, you're on your own. So I started thinking about all kinds of names, and finally, in desperation, I just got the map down and looked around the Memphis area, where I'm from down there, and I came across Conway, Arkansas, and I came across Twitty, Texas, and I put them together. That's the way it's been for the last 33 years," Conway adds.
Even though it was really a sheer bit of luck that the name caught on, the name really does stick out. Obviously, Twitty made the right call to change his marketing, considering how he's now regarded as one of the greatest country stars to ever play.
