Clyde Julian "Red" Foley was a country music singer. He began playing the guitar and the harmonica as a young boy and at age seventeen he won first prize in a statewide talent show. Ultimately he signed with Decca Records in 1941. His first single, 1944's "Smoke on the Water," topped the charts for 13 consecutive weeks; in 1945, he was the first major performer to record in Nashville.

Foley spent nine years on the National Barn Dance, and in 1946, he signed on to emcee and perform on The Prince Albert Show, a segment of the Grand Ole Opry on NBC Radio. Foley's popularity was credited with establishing the Opry as America's top country music radio show.

His hit songs include Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy, "Birmingham Bounce", "Old Shep", "Sugarfoot Rag", and "Tennessee Saturday Night". "Peace in the Valley", backed up by The Sunshine Boys, in 1951 became the first gospel record to sell a million copies, and "One By One", a duet with Kitty Wells, became a chart topper in 1954. In the 1960s he also had a hit dance record with square dancers from that era known as "The Salty Dog Rag".

For more than two decades, Foley was a major star of country music, selling in excess of twenty-five million records. He hosted the popular Ozark Jubilee ABC network radio and television program between 1955 and 1960. During 1962-63, Foley was a regular cast member along with Fess Parker in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a television series based on the famous movie.

Red Foley was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967. For his contribution to the music industry, Red Foley also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6225 Hollywood Blvd.

He died unexpectedly in 1968 in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the age of fifty-eight from a heart attack. He is interred in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.