Hal was born in the little Texas town of Ralls in 1934, and as a young man, he began penning songs.
He went to Lubbock’s Texas Tech University and served in the Navy on the aircraft carrier USS Antietam until being honorably discharged in 1959.
Hal had songs cut by several major recording artists by the early 1960s, including George Jones and Wynn Stewart. His first recorded song, “I’m Hot to Trot,” was cut by Terry Fell in 1953.
In 1968, he relocated to Nashville and had a posthumous success (Nobody’s Fool) with Jim Reeves. He worked for Charley Pride and then Mary John Wilkins’ publishing house.
Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Jeanne Pruitt, Ralph Stanley, Little Jimmy Dickens, and others all recorded songs for him during this period.
Kenny Rogers recorded “Lucille,” a song Hal had written while in the Navy and reworked with Roger Bowling, and it gave Hal his big break in 1977.
The song “Lucille” was named CMA and ACM Song of the Year. “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” a duet by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings (co-written with Dave Kirby), was immediately followed by Merle Haggard’s cover of the song.
In 1990, Hal scored another number one hit with “Chains,” which he co-wrote with Bud Reneau and Patty Loveless.
Hal established a second career as a spoken-word recording artist in the late 1990s after recording If I Could Do Anything, a Warner Bros. Records album produced by Jim Ed Norman (1998).
Hal Bynum died peacefully at the age of 87 after a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and the last stroke.
Is Hal Bynum Married?
Hal Bynum was married to Rebecca Jan Bynum. They were married for over 29 years at the time of his death.
