Eddie Noack - Top 85 Classics - The Very Best of Eddie Noack (2019)

Eddie Noack had a valiant run at country stardom in the '50s, cutting a bunch of good, straight-ahead honky tonk sides for Gold Star, Starday, D, and Mercury before dropping into the minor leagues in the '60s. During the '50s, he came close to reaching national charts with "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "Too Hot to Handle," but much of his recognition arrived as a songwriter. He penned "These Hands," which turned into something of a '60s standard it was cut by Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Lefty Frizzell, and Bob Dylan and "Have Blues, Will Travel" and "Relief Is Just a Swallow Away" were popularized by George Jones, who had mogul/manager Pappy Daily in common with Noack. All of these are sturdy credits in a Nashville second-stringer but for later generations, they're all overshadowed by one thing: Eddie Noack is the singer who cut the first version of Leon Payne's unsettling "Psycho." Noack recorded "Psycho" in 1968 for K-Ark, a label so small it was almost non-existent, so it isn't a surprise that the single disappeared upon its release, but it somehow made its way up toward Michigan, where singer Jack Kittel cut his own version in 1974. This is likely the rendition that made its way to Elvis Costello, who released a live cover of "Psycho" in 1981 that promptly made the disturbing song a cult favorite, eventually buttressing the reputation of the forgotten Noack, who had died under tragic circumstances in 1978.