George Jones - THE RACE IS ON Gold Record Award - His 1st, 1965

Description

George Jones is one of the most popular country music legends of all time.  He joins Hank Williams,  Johnny Cash,  Merle Haggard and only a few other names that will never die in the halls and on the walls of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.
George's first big hit was   THE RACE IS ON,  and it's the very first country music song that broke through the Billboard Top 100 Charts and skipped from the Billboard Country Music Charts which George easily mastered to show up on the famed "Top 100" charts which had been around since Billboard started publishing in the late 1800's and when George showed up,   Sinatra and Nat KIng Cole were the headliners.  This is treasure of an award....one of the first true  "Golden Oldies" in country music history.
After hitting the racetrack one day and losing on the ponies,  songwriter Don Rollins came up with the idea of writing a song
using thoroughbred horse racing as the metaphor for a singer's romantic relationships.   I suppose it was a good idea.
My dad, Ken Kittinger, was the premier GOLD & PLATINUM awards maker on Music Row for 50 years before his passing in 2016.  He designed and created more than 10,000 awards which hang on walls all over the world and many have recently auctioned for more than ,000.   None of his awards were ever made available to the public but were ordered by the record labels and sent to radio stations in gratitude for their help in achieving the sales needed for the RIAA "Gold," or  "Platinum" certifications.   Ken's passing was noted in Billboard Magazine,  and several Music Row publications in Nashville as well as the Tennessee Songwriter's Association publication.
The Certificate of Authenticity has a photo of Mr. Kittinger with George and wife Nancy.  The COA that comes with the award will have your name (or a name you message me with) imprinted on it as well as an identical "clean"  COA with no name.