Cowboy Copas

Cowboy Copas

Lloyd Estel Copas (July 15, 1913 – March 5, 1963), better known by his stage name Cowboy Copas, was an American country singer.

Copas was born in 1913 in Adams County, Ohio. He began performing locally at the age of fourteen, and he performed on radio shows for WLW and WKRC in Cincinnati during the 1930s. In 1940, he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on WNOX with his band, the Gold Star Rangers.

In 1943, Copas achieved national fame when he replaced Eddy Arnold as a vocalist in the Pee Wee King band and began performing on the Grand Ole Opry. His first solo single "Filipino Baby," which was released by King Records in 1946, hit number four on the Billboard country charts and sparked the most successful period of his career.

While continuing to appear on the Grand Ole Opry, Copas recorded several other hits during the late 1940s and early 1950s, including "Signed, Sealed and Delivered," "Tennessee Waltz," "Tennessee Moon," "Breeze," "I'm Waltzing With Tears in My Eyes," "Candy Kisses," "Hangman's Boogie," and "The Strange Little Girl."

Copas's 1952 single "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered" reached number eight on the Billboard country charts, but it was his final top-40 hit for eight years. Although he didn't maintain his stellar popularity of the late 1940s throughout the next decade, he continued to perform regularly on the Grand Ole Opry. He also made appearances on the Ozark Jubilee. After a lackluster partnership with Dot Records, Copas surged to the top of the charts again in 1960 with the biggest hit of his career, "Alabam," which remained number-one for three months. Other major hits during his successful period with Starday Records in the early 1960s, including "Flat Top" and a remake of "Signed, Sealed and Delivered," held promising implications for the future of his career, but he would never get the chance to carry through with the momentum of his late success.

On March 5, 1963, Copas died in a private plane crash over Camden, Tennessee. The private plane, a Piper Comanche, was being piloted by his son-in-law, Randy Hughes, who also owned the plane (and was also Cline's manager), when it crashed en route from St. Louis to Nashville. Country legend Patsy Cline and singer Hawkshaw Hawkins also died in the crash.

References

• Bush, John (2003). Edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, & Stephen Erlewine. "Cowboy Copas (Lloyd Estel Copas)." All Music Guide to Country, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003. ISBN 0-87930-760-9
• Smith, Jonathan Guyot (1998). "Cowboy Copas." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 111.