Is Don Schlitz really world famous?

It's not Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. It's The World Famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. The shrine dive on Broadway in Nashville really is famous in some circles.

I've often wondered though, as I'm sure others have, why it has to be spelled out that something is world famous if it is world famous. Wouldn't we know without being reminded?

When you think of the song "The Gambler," as popularized by Kenny Rogers, what do you think of other than that? The movie of the same name? The songwriter?

Not the songwriter. Almost no one knows the songwriter of any given song. Most people can't even recall who sang a particular song, nor the exact title.

Yet, the daily Tennessean in its July 6, 2010, issue offers this:


"Don Schlitz
Schlitz is a world-famous songwriter who has penned some of the biggest singles ever in country music, including 'The Gambler' and 'Forever and Ever Amen.'"


It goes on. But that's the gist of it. I would argue that the two songs mentioned, one actually - "The Gambler" - received some worldwide notoriety that still holds up. That in no way means that anyone is familiar with the name Don Schlitz on anything remotely approaching a worldwide scale.

And to be absouletely accurate about it, Schlitz's contribution to "Forever and Ever Amen" was as a co-writer with Paul Overstreet. Does that make Overstreet world famous as well? There is some truth to the idea that the songs are world famous, but not the songwriters.

So what, you say. It's a journalism problem. It's flack work, or public relations, serving as journalism. It's inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible journalism right here in Music City.

--Bryce Martin

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