He was not on the list.
Joe Sun, a honky-tonk country singer known for cutting 1978 single “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” died Friday of natural causes in Palm Bay, Florida, his family confirmed to The Tennessean. He was 76 years old.
Sun (real name James Joseph Paulsen) grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, and began his music career as a radio DJ in Wisconsin and Florida before moving to Nashville in the early 1970s with hopes of releasing country songs.
Sun caught a break in 1978 when Ovation Records released his debut single, “Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You,” which reached No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart. The song — written by Patricia Rose Sebert and Hugh Moffatt — would be released as a Dolly Parton single in 1980, reaching No. 1 on the country charts.
A country singer with honky-tonk stories and a rich bluesman voice, Sun landed 14 singles on the Hot Country Songs Chart, per his online biography. Other notable tracks from his discography include “Midnight Train of Memories,” “Ready for the Times to Get Better,” “High and Dry” and “Blue Ribbon Blues.”
On Sun’s website, his motto reads: “Be true to yourself and beware of crossing a line that puts your scruples in question. His songs reflect this theme of universal truth.”
Signed internationally to DixieFrog Records, Sun found touring and sales success in Europe throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to writing, recording and performing, he appeared in the 1985 film “Marie,” which starred Jeff Daniels.
Sun performed locally in the 1980s and ‘90s on WSMV television program “Chili Shack” and at the Bluebird Cafe. A committed fan of the Minnesota Vikings who continued to play music late into his life, Sun lived his final years in Merritt Island, Florida.
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