Maureen Evans - Like I Do
Maureen Evans - Like I Do
Da Da Da
Da Da Da
Da Da Da Da, Da Da Dum
She may kiss you
She may hold you
But she'll never, never, never
She will never, never love you
She may whisper
You're her only
That without you, she is lonely
But she'll never, never, never
She will never, never love you
She may sigh, you may fall
Then she'll never be at home when you call
Can't you tell by her smile
She just wants your heart to play with for a while
She may kiss you
She may hold you
But she'll never, never, never
She will never, never love you
Da Da Da
Da Da Da
Da Da Da Da, Da Da Dum
She may sigh, you may fall
Then she'll never be at home when you call
Can't you tell by her smile
She just wants your heart to play with for a while
She may kiss you
She may hold you
But she'll never, never, never
She will never, never love you
Da Da Da
Da Da Da
Da Da Da Da, Da Da Dum
In 1963, Evans competed in the British trials for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Pick the Petals", but came in third; Ronnie Carroll represented the UK that year in the competition. She continued releasing singles through the 1960s, as well as one EP (1963's Melancholy Me, on Oriole Records) and an album, Like I Do, also on Oriole (1963). She had a total of four UK Top 40 hits and sold well over one million records in the UK. She owned the Maureen Evans Theatre School in West Grove, Cardiff, which taught children aged 6 to 18 years old, how to sing, dance and act, from 1998 to 2010. In 2013, Stage Door Records released Maureen Evans – The Singles Collection, as a digital download on Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify. Like I Do: The Sixties Recordings was released on 25 November 2016 by RPM Records. This is the first time that Evans' work has been treated to a proper CD release. The album contains 31 tracks which includes Maureen's best known hits and rare B sides, from her time with both Oriole Records and the U.K. branch of Columbia Records (now a unit of Sony Music Entertainment), which purchased Oriole in 1964. Evans wrote the sleeve notes that accompany the CD. The album is available through Amazon and cherryred.co.uk.
Maureen Evans - Paper Roses ( 1960 )
Maureen Evans - Paper Roses ( 1960 )
Maureen says:
“I’ve always lived in Wales. All my childhood was spent in Nantyglo and Brynmawr where I still have cousins and Wales has always been my home and they’ve always been good to me!”
Maureen Evans (born 23rd March 1940, Cardiff, Wales is a Welsh pop singer who achieved fame in the 1950s and 1960s. Evans career began as a singer with Waldini's Gypsy Band in the mid-1950s, mainly doing summer seasons at UK holiday resorts such as Llandudno. She released her first singles in 1958 on the Embassy Records label. Her version of Connie Francis’ "Stupid Cupid" is believed to have outsold the original, selling around one million copies. She entered the UK Singles Chart in 1960 at No. 26 with the song "The Big Hurt", but her biggest hit was 1962's "Like I Do", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK in late-January 1963 and achieved silver certification for selling in excess of 250,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Like I Do was the UK's 43rd best-selling single of 1963 selling in excess of 300,000 copies.
Maureen Evans - I Love How You Love Me
Maureen Evans - I Love How You Love Me
Maureen recalls a funny moment when she was called upon by record producers to cover a rendition of Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren’s chart hit Goodness Gracious Me with the late radio presenter, Brian Matthew.
"I'd made them laugh because when they said, "Next week you're covering Sophia Loren". They heard a cry of "Agh!" down the phone. They said, "Don't worry love, We want you to sound like her, not look like her!"
Video Channel Name
Sophie Loren
Peter Sellers
Kenny Lynch - up on the roof 1962
Kenny Lynch - Up On The Roof 1962
When this whole world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me
And let me tell you now
When I come home tired and weak
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet
I get away from the hustling crowds
And all that noise down in the street
On the roof's the only place I know
Where you just have to wish to make it so
Let's go up on the roof
At night the stars put on a show for free
And darling you can share it all with me
I keep a telling you that right smack in the middle of town
I found the paradise that's trouble-proof
And if this world starts getting you down
There is room enough for two
Up on the roof
Come on baby...
You Can Never Stop Me Loving You KENNY LYNCH (with lyrics)
Kenny Lynch, OBE (born 18 March 1938, Stepney, London, England) is an English singer, songwriter, entertainer and actor from London. Lynch appeared in many variety shows in the 1960s. He was one of the relatively few black singers on the British pop scene in the early 1960s. Lynch grew up in Stepney, east London as one of 13 children and his sister, Gladys (stage name Maxine Daniels) was a jazz singer of some note. After leaving school at 15 and various jobs, he did National Service in the Royal Army Service Corps and was the regimental featherweight boxing champion. He was also a semi-professional singer. His father was born in Barbados and his mother was mixed-raced British and Jamaican.
You Can Never Stop Me Loving You KENNY LYNCH (with lyrics)
He had several UK hit singles in the early 1960s, including the two Top Ten hits, "Up on the Roof" in December 1962, and "You Can Never Stop Me Loving You" in June 1963. Lynch is most famous for a flop single he issued the same year. That was "Misery", the first cover version of a Beatles song to be released. In early 1963, Lynch had been on the same bill as The Beatles on the group's first British tour; John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote "Misery" in January 1963, in the hopes that the artist on top of the bill, Helen Shapiro, would record it. Shapiro's record producer turned it down, but Lynch took the composition and gave it a much more pop oriented arrangement than The Beatles would use when they recorded "Misery" themselves on their debut album, Please Please Me.
Whilst on a coach with The Beatles (on tour with Helen Shapiro), Lynch reportedly offered to help them write a song, but quickly became frustrated and criticised their ability to compose music - at the time Lennon and McCartney were writing "From Me to You". Years later he appeared on the album cover of Wings' 1973 album, Band on the Run, along with other celebrities. Lynch wrote a fairly high percentage of his own material, but also did some covers of songs originating from the Brill Building writers. In addition, he has written songs for others — notably the Small Faces' #3 UK hit, "Sha-La-La-La-Lee", with the American songwriter, Mort Shuman. Lynch also wrote a couple of other songs from the Small Faces' 1966 debut album, "You'd Better Believe It" (co-written with Jerry Ragavoy) and "Sorry She's Mine".
The Small Faces
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Helen Shapiro
Michael Parkinson
Lynch took part in the A Song For Europe contest in 1962 with the song "There's Never Been A Girl", but failed to win through to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. He returned to the contest in 1978, this time as a writer, penning "Don't Bother To Knock" for the group 'Midnight'. This song was placed second. His numerous TV appearances include the 1970s programme Get This which he co-presented with Harry Fowler, as well as roles in Celebrity Squares, Mooncat & Co., Room at the Bottom and Curry & Chips, as well as minor parts in Z-Cars, The Sweeney, Til Death Us Do Part and Treasure Hunt. Known for charity work, Lynch has often played in charity football matches and Michael Parkinson's 'Celebrity Cricket' fundraisers. He is a fan of the London football club West Ham United. Nowadays he owns a restaurant in North London and has appeared in the film The Riddle (2007). In 2011 Kenny & Bobby Davro appeared in “Swinging” a Frank Sinatra Tribute show. This year he has been busy with guest appearances in The Frank Sinatra Centennial Concert and The Rat Pack.
Kenny Lynch - Monument
Kenny Lynch - Monument - 1963 from the album - Up On The Roof
Lynch appeared on television programmes including Celebrity Squares, Mooncat & Co., Room at the Bottom, Bullseye and Curry and Chips. He also appeared on Z-Cars, The Sweeney, Till Death Us Do Part and Treasure Hunt. Lynch took part in the A Song For Europe contest in 1962 with the song "There's Never Been A Girl", but failed to win through to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. Lynch had more success in 1978, as a songwriter and producer. That year, his song "Don't Bother To Knock", written for the group Midnight, placed second in the contest. The same year he wrote '"Love Crazy", the theme used for Carry On Emmannuelle, and "You Can't Fight It", the vocal version of the theme to the John Carpenter film Assault on Precinct 13. In the mid-1960s he owned a record shop, the Kenny Lynch Record Centre in Walker's Court, Soho.
Z-Cars TV Series
Till Death Us Do Part
Assault On Precinct 13 - 1976
Treasure Hunt
Kenny Lynch has also starred in at least 10 movies including The Criminal (1960), Just for Fun (1963), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) he played Sammy Coin in this film. Other films include The Plank (1967) as a Dustbin Lorry Driver, Carry On Loving in 1970 as a Bus Conductor, The Alf Garnett Saga in 1972 as himself, The Playbirds in (1978) as a Police Doctor, (1979) Confessions From the David Galaxy Affair as Joe, 1979 The Plank as a Dustman, this was a TV Short, remake of the 1967 film, 2007, The Riddle, Dinner Party Guest.
Lynch sadly died in the early hours of 18th December 2019, aged 81. He had been suffering from cancer.
Brenda Lee — Losing You ᴴᴰ (1963)
Brenda Lee — Losing You ᴴᴰ (1963)
"Losing You"
Don't sigh a sigh for me
Don't ever cry for me
This is goodbye for me
I know we're through
I'm Losing you
Love sang it's song for me
Then things went wrong for me
Nights are too long for me
Because I'm losing you
Our love and our devotion
Were deep as any ocean
Then one day like the tide you began to change
And you became a perfect stranger
Someone is holding you
Sharing the lips I knew
I can't believe it's true
That I am losing you
I can't believe it's true
That I am losing you
Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1960s. She sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 47 US chart hits during the 1960s, and is ranked fourth in that decade surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Ray Charles. She is best known for her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry", and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", a US holiday standard for more than 50 years.
At 4 ft 9 inches tall (approximately 145 cm), she received the nickname Little Miss Dynamite in 1957 after recording the song "Dynamite"; and was one of the earliest pop stars to have a major contemporary international following.
Lee's popularity faded in the late 1960s as her voice matured, but she continued a successful recording career by returning to her roots as a country singer with a string of hits through the 1970s and 1980s. She is a member of the Rock and Roll, Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. She is also a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Brenda currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lee was born Brenda Mae Tarpley in the charity ward of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. She weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces at birth. She attended grade schools wherever her father found work, primarily in the corridor between Atlanta and Augusta. Her family was poor, living hand-to-mouth; she shared a bed with her two siblings in a series of three-room houses without running water. Life centered on her parents finding work, their extended family, and the Baptist Church, where she sang solos every Sunday.
Lee's father, Ruben Tarpley, was the son of a farmer in Georgia's red-clay belt. Although he stood 5 ft 7 inches, he was an excellent left-handed pitcher and spent 11 years in the U.S. Army playing baseball. Her mother, Annie Grayce Yarbrough, had a similar background of an uneducated working-class family in Greene County, Georgia.
Lee was a musical prodigy. Although her family did not have indoor plumbing until after her father's death, they had a battery-powered table radio that fascinated Brenda as a baby. By the time she was two, she could whistle the melody of songs she heard on the radio. Both her mother and sister remembered taking her repeatedly to a local candy store before she turned three; one of them would stand her on the counter and she would earn candy or coins for singing.
Lee's voice, pretty face and stage presence won her wider attention from the time she was five years old. At age six, she won a local singing contest sponsored by local elementary schools. The reward was a live appearance on an Atlanta radio show, Starmakers Revue, where she performed for the next year.
Her father died in 1953, and by the time she turned ten, she was the primary breadwinner of her family through singing at events and on local radio and television shows. During that time, she appeared regularly on the country music show "TV Ranch" on WAGA-TV in Atlanta; she was so short, the host would lower a stand microphone as low as it would go and stand her up on a wooden crate to reach it. In 1955, Grayce Tarpley was remarried to Buell "Jay" Rainwater, who moved the family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked at the Jimmy Skinner Music Center. Lee performed with Skinner at the record shop on two Saturday programs broadcast over Newport, Kentucky radio station WNOP. The family soon returned to Georgia, however, this time to Augusta, and Lee appeared on the show The Peach Blossom Special on WJAT-AM in Swainsboro.
Her break into big-time show business came in February 1955, when she turned down $30 to appear on a Swainsboro radio station in order to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV program Ozark Jubilee in Augusta. An Augusta DJ persuaded Foley to hear her sing before the show. Foley was as transfixed as everyone else who heard the huge voice coming from the tiny girl and immediately agreed to let her perform "Jambalaya" on stage that night, unrehearsed. Foley later recounted the moments following her introduction:
"I still get cold chills thinking about the first time I heard that voice. One foot started patting rhythm as though she was stomping out a prairie fire but not another muscle in that little body even as much as twitched. And when she did that trick of breaking her voice, it jarred me out of my trance enough to realize I'd forgotten to get off the stage. There I stood, after 26 years of supposedly learning how to conduct myself in front of an audience, with my mouth open two miles wide and a glassy stare in my eyes."
My Baby Likes Western Guys
Brenda Lee - My Baby Likes Western Guys
Let's Jump The Broomstick
Brenda Lee - Let's Jump The Broomstick
John Wayne
The audience erupted in applause and refused to let her leave the stage until she had sung three more songs. On March 31, 1955, the 10-year-old made her network debut on Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri. Although her five-year contract with the show was broken by a 1957 lawsuit brought by her mother and her manager, she made regular appearances on the program throughout its run.
Less than two months later - on July 30, 1956 - Decca Records offered her a contract, and her first record was "Jambayala" backed with "Bigelow 6–200". Lee's second single featured two novelty Christmas tunes: "I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus", and "Christy Christmas". Though she turned 12 on December 11, 1956, both of the first two Decca singles credit her as "Little Brenda Lee (9 Years Old)."
Neither of the 1956 releases charted, but her first issue in '57, "One Step at a Time", written by Hugh Ashley, became a hit in both the pop and country fields. Her next hit, "Dynamite", coming out of a 4 ft 9 inch frame, led to her lifelong nickname, Little Miss Dynamite.
Lee first attracted attention performing in country music venues and shows; however, her label and management felt it best to market her exclusively as a pop artist, the result being that none of her best-known recordings from the 1960s were released to country radio, and despite her country sound, with top Nashville session people, she did not have another country hit until 1969, and "Johnny One Time".
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Our Day Will Come
Brenda Lee - Our Day Will Come
There's A Kind of Hush
Brenda Lee - There's A Kind Of Hush (From All Over The World)
Lee achieved her biggest success on the pop charts in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s with rockabilly and rock and roll-styled songs. Her biggest hits included "Jambalaya", "Sweet Nothin's" (No. 4, written by country musician Ronnie Self), "I Want to Be Wanted" (No. 1), "All Alone Am I" (No. 3) and "Fool #1" (No. 3). She had more hits with the more pop-based songs "That's All You Gotta Do" (No. 6), "Emotions" (No. 7), "You Can Depend on Me" (No. 6), "Dum Dum" (No. 4), 1962's "Break It to Me Gently" (No. 2), "Everybody Loves Me But You" (No. 6), and "As Usual" (No. 12). Lee's total of nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from "That's All You Gotta Do" in 1960 through "All Alone Am I" in 1962 set a record for a female solo artist that was not equaled until 1986 (and later broken by Madonna).
Pretend ( 1960 ) - BRENDA LEE - Lyrics
Brenda Lee -- Pretend
BRENDA LEE - WHITE SILVER SANDS
Brenda Lee - White Silver Sands
The biggest-selling track of Lee's career was a Christmas song. In 1958, when she was 13, producer Owen Bradley asked her to record a new song by Johnny Marks, who had had success writing Christmas tunes for country singers, most notably "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Gene Autry) and "A Holly, Jolly Christmas" (Burl Ives). Lee recorded the song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", in July with a prominent twanging guitar part by Hank Garland and raucous sax soloing by Nashville icon Boots Randolph. Decca released it as a single that November, but it sold only 5,000 copies, and did not do much better when it was released again in 1959. However, it eventually sold more than five million copies.
Why Don't You Believe Me
Brenda Lee - Why Don't You Believe Me - From the album By Request 1964.
Brenda Lee - I'm Sorry
Brenda Lee - I'm Sorry
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Boots Randolph
Hank Garland with Elvis Presley
Johnny Marks
In 1960, she recorded her signature song, "I'm Sorry", which hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. It was her first gold single and was nominated for a Grammy. Even though it was not released as a country song, it was among the first big hits to use what was to become the Nashville sound – a string orchestra and legato harmonized background vocals. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" got noticed in its third release a few months later, and sales snowballed; the song remains a perennial favorite each December and is the record with which she is most identified by contemporary audiences.
Her last top ten single on the pop charts was 1963's "Losing You" (No. 6), while she continued to have other chart songs such as her 1966 song "Coming on Strong" and "Is It True?" in 1964. The latter, featuring Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page on guitars, Bobby Graham on drums, was her only hit single recorded in London, England, and was produced by Mickie Most (but the slide guitar and background singers were overdubbed in Nashville). It was recorded at Decca Records' number two studio at their West Hampstead complex, as was the B-side, a version of Ray Charles' 1959 classic cut, "What'd I Say?", which wasn't released in America.
Lee was popular in the United Kingdom early in her career. She toured the UK in 1959, before she had achieved much pop recognition in the US. Her 1961 rockabilly release "Let's Jump the Broomstick", recorded in 1959, did not chart in the US, but went to No. 12 in the UK. She then had two top 10 hits in the UK that were not released as singles in her native country: the first, "Speak to Me Pretty" peaked at No. 3 in early 1962 and was her greatest hit in the UK, followed by "Here Comes That Feeling", which reached No. 5. The latter was issued as the b-side to "Everybody Loves Me But You", a No. 6 in the US. However, "Here Comes That Feeling" still made an appearance in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 89. Brenda Lee also toured in Ireland and appeared on the front of the dancing and entertainment magazine of the time there, Spotlight, in April 1963. She was one of many stars to come to Ireland that year.
Lee enjoys one distinction unique among successful American singers; her opening act on a UK tour in the early 1960s was a then-little-known beat group from Liverpool, England: The Beatles. Brenda Lee toured with Tony Sheridan, The Bachelors and Mike Berry in March 1963.
Brenda Lee I Want To Be Wanted
Brenda Lee - I Want To Be Wanted
Brenda Lee - The end of the world(1963)
Brenda Lee - The end of the world(1963)
During the early 1970s, Lee re-established herself as a country music artist, and earned a string of top ten hits on the country charts. The first was 1973's "Nobody Wins", which reached the top five that spring and became her last Top 100 pop hit, peaking at No. 70. The follow-up, the Mark James composition "Sunday Sunrise", reached No. 6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart that October. Other major hits included "Wrong Ideas" and "Big Four Poster Bed" (1974); and "Rock on Baby" and "He's My Rock" (both 1975).
After a few years of lesser hits, Lee began another run at the top ten with 1979's "Tell Me What It's Like". Two follow-ups also reached the Top 10 in 1980: "The Cowgirl and the Dandy" and "Broken Trust" (the latter featuring vocal backing by The Oak Ridge Boys). A 1982 album, The Winning Hand, featuring Lee along with Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, was a surprise hit, reaching the top ten on the U.S. country albums chart. Her last well-known hit was 1985's "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", a duet with George Jones.
Too Many Rivers
BRENDA LEE Too Many Rivers 1965 HQ
Valley Of Tears
Brenda Lee - Valley Of Tears
Over the ensuing years, Lee continued to record and perform around the world, previously cutting records in four different languages. In 1992, she recorded a duet ("You’ll Never Know") with Willy DeVille on his album Loup Garou. Today, she continues to perform and tour.
On October 4, 2000, Lee inducted fellow country music legend Charley Pride into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Her autobiography, Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee was published by Hyperion in 2002 (ISBN 0-7868-6644-6).
Family
Although Lee's songs have often centered on lost loves, her marriage to Ronnie Shacklett in 1963 has endured. He was able to deal with the notoriously rapacious music industry and is credited with ensuring her long-term financial success. They have two daughters, Jolie and Julie (who was named after Patsy Cline's daughter) and three grandchildren, Taylor, Jordan and Charley.
Recognition
Lee reached the final ballot for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and 2001 without being inducted, but was voted into the hall for 2002.
Celebrating over 50 years as a recording artist, in September 2006 she was the second recipient of the Jo Meador-Walker Lifetime Achievement award by the Source Foundation in Nashville. In 1997, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; and is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In 2008, her recording of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" marked 50 years as a holiday standard, and in February 2009, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave Lee a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
Chuck Berry wrote a song about Lee on the album St. Louis to Liverpool. She was also mentioned in Golden Earring's 1973 hit "Radar Love": "Radio's playing some forgotten song / Brenda Lee's 'Coming on Strong'." She was also remembered as a heroine to Burton Cummings on his 1978 album Dream of a Child in the title track including the lines "When I was a child, dreamed that Elvis Presley, was standing on the corner, kissing Brenda Lee", and in the closing line, "I love Brenda Lee / Brenda Lee loves me / yeah...". Ben Vaughn wrote and released "I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)" in 1985, which has also been covered by Marshall Crenshaw. Lee is also referenced in the film Smokey and the Bandit.
"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" was heard in the 1990 movie Home Alone. "I'm Sorry" can be heard in the 1991 movie The Fisher King, the 1993 movie This Boy's Life, and the 1995 movie Tommy Boy. "Sweet Nothin's" can be heard in 2009's critically acclaimed An Education.
"I Wonder", released in 1963, was the song playing at Colleen's funeral in the episode "The Cost of Living" in Season 3 of the ABC television show Lost. The episode originally aired on November 1, 2006. Kelly Clarkson appeared as Lee on two episodes of the NBC series American Dreams. "Break It To Me Gently" plays during the credits of "The Gold Violin", Season 2: Episode 7 of the AMC series Mad Men and Season 1: Episode 7 of the ABC series Pan Am.
Her 1963 cover of "Fly Me to the Moon" is used in the end credits of the 2010 video game, Bayonetta.
After being name-dropped in Smokey and the Bandit as a favorite of the Bandit, Lee put in an appearance in the sequel Smokey and the Bandit II listed as "Nice Lady", a wedding guest who seems to take some glee at reminding Sheriff Justice of his previous encounter with Beau "Bandit" Darville.
Kanye West's song "Bound 2" samples Lee's voice from the song "Sweet Nothin's" on his 2013 album, Yeezus.
Chuck Berry
Burton Cummings
Marshal Crenshaw
Discography
Grandma, What Great Songs You Sang! (1959)
Brenda Lee (1960)
This Is...Brenda (1960)
Emotions (1961)
All the Way (1961)
Sincerely, Brenda Lee (1962)
Brenda, That's All (1962)
All Alone Am I (1963)
..."Let Me Sing" (1963)
By Request (1964)
Brenda Lee Sings Top Teen Hits (1965)
The Versatile Brenda Lee (1965)
Too Many Rivers (1965)
Bye Bye Blues (1966)
Coming On Strong (1966)
Reflections in Blue (1967)
Johnny One Time (1969)
Memphis Portrait (1970)
Brenda (1973)
New Sunrise (1973)
Brenda Lee Now (1974)
Sincerely (1975)
L.A. Sessions (1976)
Even Better (1980)
Take Me Back (1980)
Only When I Laugh (1981)
Feels So Right (1985)
Brenda Lee (1991)
Precious Memories (1997)
Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends (2007)
Hank Garland
Elvis Presley introduced Hank Garland as 'one of the finest guitar players anywhere in the country', ... Garland worked with Elvis from 1957 to 1961, and was playing on the soundtrack for the movie 'Follow That Dream' when his 1959 Chevy Nomad station wagon crashed near Springfield ....
The music is still in his fingers. Place a guitar in the hands of legendary Hank 'Sugarfoot' Garland and he's quickly plucking strings, playing along with a black and white television image of himself from four decades ago on 'Hometown U.S.A'. Ask him about the mythic figures he's worked with in Nashville, and he'll pause and smile - almost as if to give his brain time to rewind - before answering. Elvis Presley? 'He was real nice', Garland said. Four decades after an auto accident almost killed him and ended his brilliant music career, Garland is fighting ill health, trying to pry royalties out of former record companies and talking with Hollywood about a movie based on his life. Time was, Garland was the talk of Nashville, known for musical riffs that could take a recording from humdrum to dazzling, as he did on Elvis hits like 'Little Sister' and 'Big Hunk of Love'. He also pioneered playing jazz in the country music capital. 'He is heralded as a quintessential Nashville studio guitarist', noted musician Wolf Marshall said via email. In addition to Elvis, Marshall said, Garland contributed to the music of the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and many others; was at the forefront of the rock 'n' roll movement; enjoyed a prestigious career as a country virtuoso, pioneering the electric guitar at the Grand Ole Opry; and inspired jazz instrumentalists such as George Benson.
Garland's star burned out following the September 1961 accident, which along with a series of 100 shock treatments administered at a Nashville hospital left him a shadow of his former self. But what a career he had. Garland proudly displays the ukulele that Elvis gave him after the King played it in the movie 'Blue Hawaii'. Garland also participated in Elvis' Jailhouse Rock concert in Memphis, Tenn. Elvis introduced Garland as 'one of the finest guitar players anywhere in the country', said his younger brother, Billy Garland.
Garland worked with Elvis from 1957 to 1961, and was playing on the soundtrack for the movie 'Follow That Dream' when his 1959 Chevy Nomad station wagon crashed near Springfield, Tenn., throwing Garland from the car and leaving him in a coma for months. Billy Garland claims it was no accident, but an attempted hit by someone in the Nashville record scene. He has photos showing bullet holes in the car. He doesn't know who ordered his brother's shock treatments, but they left him with little short-term memory. 'You don't take a man's brains away from him', Billy Garland said. A hospital report contains the notation: 'He has no memory now. He's retarded'.
Hank Garland had to relearn everything from walking to talking to playing the guitar. He walks with a cane and has other health problems, his brother said.
For the past four decades, Garland, now 73, has lived a quiet existence. A trunk in Billy Garland's home shows the depth and breadth of Hank's meteoric career. His detailed session logbook reads like a 'Who's Who' of the stars of country music - Brenda Lee, Web Pierce, Bobby Helms, Kitty Wells, Johnny Horton, Mel Tilis, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Hank Snow, Porter Wagner, Boots Randolph, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams ... The walls of the home where Garland lives are covered with pictures of him with Nashville's top stars. One shows him standing beside Patsy Cline as she sings into a microphone. He played on her classics, including Crazy' and 'I Fall to Pieces'. 'I only remember her vaguely', Garland said.
Porter Wagoner with Dolly Parton
Porter Wagoner
Another photo shows Garland with the Everly Brothers. Garland was featured on the recordings of 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Wake up Little Susie' in 1957. Another shows Roy Orbison and Hank, who worked with him on the hits 'Pretty Woman' and 'Only the Lonely'. A native of Cowpens, S.C., Garland began playing guitar at age 6 and radio shows at age 12. He was discovered at a Spartanburg, S.C. music store at 14, where he went to buy a guitar string. Paul Howard, leader of the Arkansas Cotton Pickers, heard Hank's playing and was impressed. He took Garland with him to Nashville, but child labor laws soon put his professional playing days on hold until he was 16. When returned, he set the country music capital on fire. He had his first million-selling hit at age 19, with 'Sugar Foot Rag', a legendary country tune.
The Everly Brothers
In 1954, along with his close friend, Billy Byrd, Garland invented a short scale neck guitar for Gibson Guitars. In honor of the two, the guitar was known as the 'Byrdland'. In 1960, Garland recorded what he claims was the first jazz album ever done in Nashville, 'Jazz Winds from a New Direction'. Like many artists of the 50s and 60s, Garland receives no royalties from any of the record companies still selling his works. Attempts by his family to collect what they believe is due to him have been unsuccessful. Garland has filed a federal lawsuit over authorship of the 1957 Christmas classic 'Jingle Bell Rock' in federal court in Jacksonville seeking royalties from the record. Bobby Helms, before his death in 1997, claimed that he and Garland wrote the song but never got credit or royalties because they were under contract as artists and not writers.
Warner/Chappell music company has filed a motion to dismiss the suit claiming that Garland's claims are barred by the statute of limitations. And for the second time since he quit playing, the family is reviewing a movie script based on Hank's life. It's called 'Crazy', but so far there are no firm deals to make it. A previous movie deal starring Jerry Reed as Hank fell through. 'He was born with talent', said Garland's brother Billy. 'A God-given talent'.
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Hank Garland Sugarfoot Rag
Hank Garland Sugarfoot Rag
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