He spent 113 weeks at number one on the country charts — a dominance no modern superstar has matched — yet Webb Pierce is best remembered for a $30,000 guitar-shaped swimming pool that sparked a neighborhood war. The honky-tonk king of 1950s country music filled the vacuum left by Hank Williams and changed the genre's sound forever.

Pierce was equal parts musical pioneer and relentless self-promoter, from introducing the weeping pedal steel guitar on 1954's Slowly to plastering his cars with real currency. His story raises a question for today's PR-managed music industry: did corporate polish cost country music the wildness that made it matter?

• Spent a staggering 113 total weeks at number one during the 1950s honky-tonk era

• In the Jailhouse Now (1955) ruled the number one spot for 21 of its 37 chart weeks

• 1954 ...