The Bill Smith Combo
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The Bill Smith Combo
Tommy & The Tom Toms (later known as The Bill Smith Combo) was an American musical group from 1959 to 1962 playing rock and roll, rhythm & blues, and rockabilly. History The group first started with two guitars and drums, Eddie Wayne Hill on lead guitar, Leonard Walters on rhythm guitar and Joel Colbert on drums. The three fledgling musicians from Arlington, Texas began jamming in an old barn in 1959 and evolved to playing around town for private parties. This exposure led to regular Friday night appearances at a small, local lounge. Bass guitarist David A. Martin joined the group a few months later. The owner of the Guthrey Club in Dallas heard the band and hired them for an indefinite engagement. At Guthrey's, one of the largest rhythm and blues clubs in city, the band completed their personnel by adding Joe Donnell on sax and Tommy Brown as vocalist. The band was now complete and decided to change their name to Tommy & The Tom Toms. They soon became one of the top, and most ...
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Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and County seat, seat of Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County with portions extending into Collin County, Texas, Collin, Denton County, Texas, Denton, Kaufman County, Texas, Kaufman and Rockwall County, Texas, Rockwall counties. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the List of United States cities by population, ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and the List of cities in Texas by population, third-largest in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link ...
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Major Bill Smith
William Arthur Smith (January 21, 1922 – September 12, 1994), "Bill Smith", ''Texas Music Office: Texas Music Pioneers''
. Retrieved 2 June 2014
known as Major Bill Smith, was an American , publisher, promoter, songwriter, and owner based in .


Biography

He was born in

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Big Joe Turner
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s. Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues. Career Early days Turner was born May 18, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. His father was killed in a train accident when Turner was four years old. He sang in his church, and on street corners for money. He left school at age fourteen to work in Kansas City's nightclubs, first as a cook and later as a singing bartender. He became known as "The Singing Barman", and worked in such venues as the Kingfish Club and the Sunset, where he and his par ...
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Jack Scott (singer)
Jack Scott (born Giovanni Domenico Scafone Jr.; January 24, 1936 – December 12, 2019) was a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011 and was called "undeniably the greatest Canadian rock and roll singer of all time." Career Scott spent his early childhood in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, Michigan. When he was 10, his family moved to Hazel Park, a Detroit suburb. He grew up listening to hillbilly music and was taught to play the guitar by his mother, Laura. As a teenager, he pursued a singing career and recorded as "Jack Scott". At the age of 18, he formed the Southern Drifters. After leading the band for three years, he signed to ABC-Paramount Records as a solo artist in 1957. After recording two good-selling local hits for ABC-Paramount in 1957, he switched to the Carlton record label and had a double-sided national hit in 1958 with "Leroy" (#11) / "My True Love" (#3). The record sold ove ...
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Mark Dinning
Max Edward Dinning (August 17, 1933 — March 22, 1986), known by his stage name Mark Dinning was an American pop music singer. In February 1960, the song " Teen Angel", written by his sister Jean (Eugenia) and her husband Red Surrey, reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart. Jean and two of her sisters, Virginia and Lucille, comprised The Dinning Sisters, a popular singing trio in the 1940s. Additionally, Dinning is the uncle of Dean Dinning, bass guitarist for alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. Biography Dinning was born in Manchester, Oklahoma, the youngest of nine children, and was raised on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee, after his family relocated from Kansas. He followed his sisters and pursued a career in country music and, in 1957, record producer Wesley Rose signed him to a recording contract as Mark Dinning. His recording efforts met with limited success until 1959, when "Teen Angel" became a hit. The lyrics, which told of the death ...
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Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. "Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless (Jerry Lee Lewis song), Breathless", and "High School Confidential (Jerry Lee Lewis song), High School Confidential". His rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin once removed. His popularity quickly eroded following the scandal and with few exceptions such as a cover of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say", he did ...
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Jimmy Reed
Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), "Baby What You Want Me to Do" (1960), " Big Boss Man" (1961), and " Bright Lights, Big City" (1961) appeared on both ''Billboard'' magazine's rhythm and blues and Hot 100 singles charts. Reed influenced other musicians, such as Elvis Presley, Hank Williams Jr., and the Rolling Stones, who recorded his songs. Music critic Cub Koda describes him as "perhaps the most influential bluesman of all," due to his easily accessible style. Biography Reed was born in Dunleith, Mississippi, United States. He learned the harmonica and guitar from his friend Eddie Taylor. After several years of busking and performing there, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1943. He was then drafted into the U.S. Navy and served in World War II. He was discharged in ...
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Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright. Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the ''Billboard'' Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), " R ...
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Since I Met You Baby (song)
"Since I Met You Baby" is an American rhythm and blues song written and recorded by pianist Ivory Joe Hunter. The song, which Hunter recorded in 1956, became an American standard, and saw renewed popularity in 1969 when country music artist Sonny James released his hit version. Song background Hunter had already tasted major success with popular and rhythm and blues audiences with songs such as "I Almost Lost My Mind". He moved to Atlantic Records by 1954, and around that time wrote "Since I Met You Baby." The song, a 12-bar blues, was described by AllMusic critic Steve Huey as "a masterpiece of smooth, bluesy elegance" and "decidedly removed from the tide of raucous rock & roll sweeping the country." In fact, compared to many of the other uptempo, rock-beat songs of the period, the song was "augmented by a wordless vocal choir (supervised by Ray Ellis who also did the orchestral arrangement) that's strongly reminiscent of traditional pop recordings of the period," wrote Hue ...
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Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Garza Huerta; June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He was best known for his 1975 hits " Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and the subsequent remake of his own "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". Early years Fender was born in San Benito, Texas, United States, to Margarita Garza and her Mexican husband, Serapio Huerta. He made his debut radio performance at age 10 on Harlingen, Texas, radio station KGBT, singing a then-hit "Paloma Querida." Fender dropped out of high school at age 16 in 1953, and when he turned 17, he enlisted for three years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served time in the brig on several occasions because of his drinking, and he was court-martialed in August 1956 and discharged with rank of private (E-1). According to Fender, he later received a letter from the U.S. Department of the ...
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Gene Summers
David Eugene Summers (January 3, 1939 – February 17, 2021) was an American rockabilly singer, songwriter and guitarist. His most famous recordings include the late 50s "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", " Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake", "Fancy Dan" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds". Summers was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2005. He still performed worldwide and celebrated his 50th anniversary as a recording artist in 2008 with the release of '' Reminisce Cafe''. Early life and rise to first success Summers was born in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Duncanville High School in 1957 and attended Arlington State College, now known as the University of Texas at Arlington. That same year, he formed the rockabilly band the Rebels and performed on ''Joe Bill's Country Picnic'' on KRLD-TV where they were spotted by songwriter Jed Ta ...
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The Waltz You Saved For Me
"The Waltz You Saved for Me" is a popular song written in 1930 by Wayne King and Emil Flindt with lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song soon became associated as the theme song of Wayne King and His Orchestra. Notable artists who have recorded the song include: Al Bowlly (1931), Bert Ambrose (1931), Roy Smeck (1931), Light Crust Doughboys (1935), Bing Crosby (1938), Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys (1938), Robert Hamilton and His Orchestra (1950), John Schroeder's Playboys, Cliffie Stone (1952), Billy Vaughn (1955), Lenny Breau (1956), Merle Travis (1956), Bill Doggett (1961), Ferlin Husky (1961), Living Strings (1962), Gene Summers David Eugene Summers (January 3, 1939 – February 17, 2021) was an American rockabilly singer, songwriter and guitarist. His most famous recordings include the late 50s "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", " Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That ... (1966), John Anderson (1982), and Emmylou Harris (1982). References Al Bowlly son ...
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