Sam Neely

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title: "Sam Neely" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1948-births", "2006-deaths", "singer-songwriters-from-texas", "american-country-singer-songwriters", "mca-records-artists", "20th-century-american-singer-songwriters", "people-from-cuero,-texas", "country-musicians-from-texas"] description: "American singer-songwriter (1948-2006)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Neely" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American singer-songwriter (1948-2006) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Sam Neely
image	Sam Neely.png
caption	Sam Neely in 1972
background	solo_singer
birth_date
birth_place	Cuero, Texas, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.
genre	Country, folk
occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, performer
instrument	Guitar, vocals
years_active	1958-1984
label	A&M, Astro, Capitol, Elektra, MCA, Taliesyn
associated_acts	The Buckle
::

| name = Sam Neely | image = Sam Neely.png | image_size = | landscape = | alt = | caption = Sam Neely in 1972 | background = solo_singer | birth_name = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Cuero, Texas, U.S. | origin = | death_date = | death_place = Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S. | genre = Country, folk | occupation = Musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, performer | instrument = Guitar, vocals | years_active = 1958-1984 | label = A&M, Astro, Capitol, Elektra, MCA, Taliesyn | associated_acts = The Buckle

Sam Neely (August 22, 1948 – July 19, 2006) was an American country and folk music musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and performer.

Born in Cuero, Texas, Neely began playing guitar at age ten. After moving with his family to Corpus Christi, Texas, he began playing in bands, including local group, Buckle. He made an appearance on the Merv Griffin Show in 1968 and was asked to write a song for the film, Tilt; though the movie was not released until 1978, it did include Neely's track, "Long Road to Texas".

Neely scored a string of minor hits in the 1970s on the country and pop charts and released a few albums which saw sales success. In 1978, he moved back to Corpus Christi and became the house musician for the Electric Eel. In 1983, he made a comeback on MCA Records.

On July 19, 2006, Neely collapsed and died while mowing his lawn at his home in Corpus Christi. He was 57. A funeral mass was held at St. Patrick Catholic parish in Corpus Christi on July 23, 2006.

Select discography

Albums

::data[format=table] | Year | Album | Chart Positions | US | |---|---|---|---| | 1971 | Long Road to Texas | — | | | 1972 | Loving You Just Crossed My Mind | 147 | | | 1973 | Two | 175 | | | 1974 | Down Home | 202 | | | 1981 | Two of a Kind | — | | | 2000 | Son of the South | — | | | 2002 | Sam Neely | — | | ::

Singles

::data[format=table] | Year | Song | Peak chart positions | US Country | US | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1972 | "Loving You Just Crossed My Mind" | — | 29 | | | 1973 | "Rosalie" | — | 43 | | | 1974 | "Sadie Take a Lover" | — | 103 | | | "You Can Have Her" | 49 | 34 | | | | 1975 | "Sanctuary (promo)" | — | — | | | 1975 | "I Fought the Law" | 61 | 54 | | | 1977 | "Sail Away" | 98 | 84 | | | 1983 | "The Party's Over (Everybody's Gone)" | 78 | — | | | "When You Leave That Way You Can Never Go Back" | 77 | — | | | | 1984 | "Old Photographs" | 81 | — | | ::

References

References

1. [{{AllMusic
2. [{{AllMusic
3. Whitburn, Joel. (2011). "Top Pop Singles 1955–2010". Record Research, Inc.
4. "Sanctuary - Sam Neely | 7inch | Recordsale".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::