Reconsider the Marvel

In the most recent of my frequent attempts to eat right, I was shopping at a local grocery store.  In the fruits and vegetable section I picked out some of my least favorite foods, which, in one of life’s little cruelties, are the ones doctors tell me I need to eat the most of.  Yes, vegetables, specifically the leafy green ones.

I turned the corner to go grab some salad greens just as a slender, elderly man was putting a bag of lettuce in his cart.  I recognized one of my town’s most famous residents immediately.

We smiled at each other.  I was face-to-face with “the Marvel.”

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I greeted him, “Hello Mr. Felts.”

At almost the same time, he said, “Hi, how are you?”

We exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways.  On the next aisle, I overheard a lady say, “Hello Mr. Narvel.  How have you been?”

“Fine, how’s your mom?” he responded.

Just a couple of passing friends being friendly…not exactly what you might expect of a conversation between a “normal person” and an international superstar, but it’s exactly what you get with Narvel Felts.

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He was born Albert Narvel Felts on November 11, 1938 in Keiser, Arkansas.  As of the 2010 census, Keiser had only 759 residents.  Despite its small size, Keiser has the distinction of being the birthplace of two country music stars.  Besides Mr. Felts, Ed Bruce, writer of 1975’s “”Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” was born there. 

By the mid-1950s the Felts family was living in Powe, Missouri, about eight miles west of Bernie, Missouri, where he went to school.  It was while attending Bernie High School that Narvel’s talent gained the attention of classmates.  In 1956 they encouraged him to compete in the school’s talent show.  Felts chose to take on Carl Perkins’s popular tune, “Blue Suede Shoes.”  The song had previously hit number one on most pop, R&B, and country regional charts, and was the first million-selling country song to cross over to both the rhythm and blues and the pop charts.

Hey, if you’re going to aim, you might as well aim high.

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Luck smiled at Narvel when a disc-jockey from Dexter, Missouri’s KDEX radio station was in attendance.  The DJ announced on air the next day that he wanted to get in touch with Narvel Felts. 

Seventeen-year-old Narvel and his father made the eight-mile drive to the nearest telephone to make contact with the DJ.  Soon the teenager had his own Saturday afternoon radio show.

Over the ensuing years Mr. Felts’s star continued to rise and, in 1973 he hit the country charts with his own first top ten single, “Drift Away.”

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I can remember about that time seeing a poster, advertising “Drift Away,” in the window at one of the drug stores in Malden.  Narvel had been living in Malden for some time by then, with his wife, Loretta, and their two children.

One day I was listening to the radio when Felts singing “Drift Away” came on.  I had an eight-track tape of Humble Pie performing the same number so, at first, I didn’t like the version coming in to my car on the airwaves…but there was something about the singer’s voice, the way he sang the song.  The high-pitch, the way the vibrato was almost unrestrained.

As one writer would later say, “Narvel Felts uses his unique voice to make a song his own.”  He did that with his signature tune “Reconsider Me,” which was originally recorded by Johnny Adams in 1969.  Narvel explained, “My producer found the song, and it fit my style really well. I had (my) biggest hit on ‘Reconsider Me’.  It was the song that really established me as a country artist.”  That tune peaked at No. 2 on Billboard in 1976.”

At the onset of his career Mr. Felts was part of the rockabilly musical style, an early version of rock and roll.  Later, he was identified more with country.

He became known to fans as “Narvel the Marvel.”

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Around 1978/79 I picked up my corporal stripes and, as a young non-commissioned officer, I was moved to that part of the enlisted men’s housing.  Before long another Marine named Tom Repinski became my roommate.  I’d already been friends with Ski for a while but got to know him better after he moved in.

I was mostly a fan of the rock bands of the era but, as I’ve said, I couldn’t nail my musical preferences down to one particular genre.  You might walk into my room to find me listening to rock, country, classical, or, yes, disco.

Tom only knew that I liked rock.  “You won’t like my music,” he said.  “I listen to country.”

“I listen to country too.”  I protested.  “Who’s your favorite country star?”

He shook his head.  “You’ve never heard of him.”

“Oh yeah?  Who is it?”

“It’s NarVELL Felts.”  He emphasized the second syllable.

I chuckled and countered with the proper pronunciation.  “It’s NARvel Felts.”

He shook his head and started to argue, but I held up my hand, and said, “I know Narvel.  He lives within ¼ mile of my parents.”

I won’t go into the details of the rest of our conversation, but much of his could be summed up with the word, “Bull.”

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Although Mr. Felts and I have never had any long conversations, our paths have crossed from time to time.  My sister, Chickie, taught his son, Albert Narvel Felts Jr. in school.  Everybody called Narvel Jr. simply, Bub.  When Narvel Sr. and I have greeted each other by name, he has always asked about Chick.

You see, Narvel cares about people, and he understands the importance of family.  A few years ago, he was faced with moving to Nashville to enhance his career.  He visited the city and picked out a nice house on Old Hickory Lane…but just couldn’t make the move.  “I didn’t think it would be fair to pull my kids out of school and away from their friends, so we decided to stay in Malden,” Felts said.

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You can have your Kardashians and Miley Cyrus too.  If we’re talking about celebrities to look up to, I’ll take Narvel Felts every time.  When it comes to celebrities with gobs of talent and who still have their priorities straight, Mr. Felts truly is, “Narvel the Marvel.”

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