CONWAY TWITTY SANG IN RUSSIAN 25 YEARS AGO

CONWAY TWITTY SANG IN RUSSIAN 25 YEARS AGO

NASHVILLE (Wireless Flash) -- Today (July 17) marks the 25th anniversary of the day the "Apollo 18" spacecraft linked with the Russian spaceship "Soyuz 19" nearly 140 miles above Earth. Even spacier: During the meeting, the Russian cosmonauts listened to country singer Conway Twitty sing his 1970 hit, "Hello Darlin"' in Russian. The cosmonaut crooning came about because NASA bigwig and Twitty fan General Thomas P. Stafford wanted to greet the cosmonauts in Russian. Twitty hired a Russian language expert to teach him how to sing "Hello Darlin" in Russian, figuring it would take an hour. However, his Russian was so bad, it took days. Although the Russian version of "Hello Darlin" wasn't a hit, Twitty said one of his proudest moments was watching the astronauts listen to his song.