Cecil Allen Null (April 26, 1927 – August 26, 2001) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

. He began writing songs and singing publicly while serving in the Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After leaving the service, he performed with various groups on

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s in

Bristol, Virginia Bristol is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,219. It is the twin city of Bristol, Tennessee, just across the state line, which runs down the middle of its main street, State S ...

. He wrote the songs "

I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" (sometimes "I've Forgotten More Than You'll Ever Know About Him") is a song, written by Cecil Null. Song background The song was one of five tracks recorded (including two versions of the "B" side, "Rockab ...

" and "

I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew "I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew (About Him)" is a country and western song written by Cecil Null. Recorded by Betty Cody in 1952, the RCA release reached the top ten on the Billboard Country Chart. It was the answer record An answer song, res ...

", which became 1953 hits for

The Davis Sisters The Davis Sisters of Philadelphia, PA were an American gospel group founded by Ruth ("Baby Sis") Davis and featuring her sisters Thelma, Audrey, Alfreda and Edna. Imogene Greene joined the group in 1950, and was later replaced by Jackie Verdell ...

and

Betty Cody Betty Cody (August 17, 1921 – July 1, 2014) was a Canadian-born country music singer. Her notable singles include the 1952 RCA releases "Tom Tom Yodel" and "I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew", and "Please Throw Away The Glass" released by ...

, respectively. On December 5, 1953, both songs were listed in the top ten of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart. Null became an expert at playing and designing

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

s, and ultimately served as a consultant for a manufacturer of the instrument.

Biography

Cecil Null was born in East War, West Virginia. Following his death from cancer August 26, 2001, he was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in

Bristol, Tennessee Bristol is a city in the State of Tennessee. Located in Sullivan County, its population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The ...

Songs

" (1953) *"

" (1953) *"Close Your Eyes (And I'll Be There)" *"Love Isn't Love (Until You Give it Away)" (Cecil Null & E. C. Chance) *"Mother Maybelle" 1964. *"She's Hungry Again" Recorded by Bill Philips (1970)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Null, Cecil 1927 births 2001 deaths Songwriters from West Virginia American autoharp players 20th-century American musicians People from War, West Virginia