01/18/2026
Legend
For a singer born in Friars Point, Mississippi and raised in Helena, Arkansas, it all started with a song comparing his eyes and his heart.
Harold Jenkins was born in Mississippi just across the river from Helena, Arkansas. His family later moved to Helena and he began his career while a teenager with a show on legendary Helena radio station KFFA/1360AM.
Jenkins was a standout baseball player and actually signed a contract to play within the Philadelphia Phillies organization; however, before he could start with them he was drafted. During his Army service, he played with a group and although the Phillies were still interested when he got out of the Army, Jenkins decided to pursue music.
Before he got too far into his music career, Jenkins decided to change his name to Conway Twitty. He said he got the idea from two towns, Twitty, Texas and Conway, Arkansas.
Twitty made some recordings for Sun Records but none were released at the time. He also led the band at the Trio Club which was a supper club owned and operated by Jim Ed Brown's family in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Twitty's first released records were on the Mercury label about 1957. "I Need Your Lovin'" made it to #93 on the pop charts but a change to the MGM label brought his first pop hit, "It's Only Make Believe". Twitty went on to have 9 top 40 pop hits between 1958 and 1963.
Conway Twitty had always loved country music. The Browns recorded his composition "Just In Time" on their first album in the late 1950's. In 1963, Ray Price took his composition, "Walk Me to the Door" to #7. About 1964 Twitty decided to abandon rock and roll and concentrate on country music.
Twitty had a fine debut on Decca Records in 1965 with "That Kind of Girl" but it wasn't a hit. When he recorded a Liz Anderson song called "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart" found himself with his first country hit. The song rose to #18 in 1966. Four more singles made the charts, 4 making it into the top 40. The next single, "The Image of Me" made it to #5 in 1968. And the next one, "Next In Line" went all the way to #1. Over the next 18 years, he had 39 more songs hit #1, a record that stood for decades until broken by George Strait.
Twitty placed 98 songs on the Billboard Country Chart between 1966 and 2004. Tragically, he died at the age of 59 in 1993 after suffering an aneurysm while on tour.
Conway Twitty was variously known as "the best friend a song ever had" and the "High Priest of Country Music". He recorded with Loretta Lynn and had great success. He later built a complex in Nashville called Twitty City. He pretty much did it all. Billboard said he was the #1 country singer of the 1970's and the #2 country singer of the 1980's. And the country music success all started with a song called "Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart".
